Minuet
by Ryuutsu Seishin Hime no Argh
Summary: The guide is always three steps ahead. Sheik, Zelda, Link...how do you ready yourself to die when those who will end your life are the only ones who have ever cared for you? Ocarina of Time from Sheik's point of view. A love story.
1. Chapter 1

_AN:_ This is the first Zelda fic I've uploaded in quite a while. It narrates the second half of Ocarina of Time from Sheik's point of view. I have taken huge liberties with plot and character. The events of this story are vastly different from the events of the game, but still, I hope, compelling.

This fic is already finished, so I'll be uploading it at a fairly quick pace. Expect new chapters twice a week for the most part. I'm going to aim for updates on Sundays and Thursdays.

Thanks for reading.

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**Minuet  
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Prologue

I composed the Minuet of Forest while sitting in a tree. The little songs come to me in the way of the idea behind them—they seem to simply appear in my mind. It's my favorite, the minuet. A pretty melody, simple, easy to remember. Six notes. Three beats. Three little steps over the vastest stretches of space.

The songs are powerful, in their own ways, and so am I. There should be no underestimating the guide, the one who has walked the path of the hero to the end and back before the hero has taken one step. I am always before, always out of reach. And when the end comes I will still be before, on the other side, in the place where the hero has yet to tread. My days are numbered, you see. Three steps. Three beats. Birth, life, death. The song is over.

The Sheikah are shadows. We are born to serve. She created me to hide her, to protect her, so that is what I do. She wants me to help him, to guide him, so that is what I do. While she sleeps, I explore, I hunt, I follow, I lead, I help. And I tell my story.

My time passes almost as quickly as the minuet. I have no past, no future. I have only the present. When the hero stands at the end of his path, when she no longer needs protecting, when this world is saved, I will be gone.

Can you imagine having nothing at all in the world to hold in your hands and call your own? Can you imagine the futility of trying to touch something, to affect something, when you know the day of your death, the day you'll cease to be?

It was the first mistake out of many that I'd make. To try to be content. To try to be happy. I can't lead him forever. But because it's all that I have, I'll hold onto it: this hero, this princess, this task. This bond, this connection, whatever it is that I have with him. This life, this minuet.

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Chapter 1

She was fifteen years old when I met her. An adult by the standards of her world, but to me, she was a little girl in a place she did not belong. The shadow could have swallowed her up in an instant, yet here she was, afraid but no less courageous, hesitant but no less determined. I had never met a creature with such fire in her.

I suppose you could say I fell in love.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her gently.

"I need your help." Her voice was small but strong, and her eyes met mine without flinching. I can't say I know exactly what I must have looked like to her. I didn't precisely have a corporeal form in the shadow world.

"I'm not a soul guide," I told her. "If you've just passed, the guides will help you."

"I'm not dead. Impa brought me here so I could speak with you."

I looked at her. Fair hair, blue eyes, a grave face with delicate features. I am fascinated with faces. Hers was youthful, smooth as newly carved marble, unmarked by the erosion of age. Yet there seemed to me to be wisdom in it, a strange, serene weariness.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Zelda. I'm the princess of the Hylian Kingdom." She hesitated, then bobbed a curtsy. "It's an honor to meet you, Sheikah."

I had to look around to make sure there was no one else there. Who was this delicate creature, that she, a princess, should curtsy to a Sheikah?

"Please don't debase yourself for me," I said at last. "I'm not worth it."

"I don't consider it debasement, sir," she replied contritely.

Oh, she was beautiful. The warmth and light that she brought to this place—it was a wonder the shadow hadn't consumed her already. Didn't she realize the danger of speaking to a creature like me? For I wanted to consume her, too. I wanted all of her for myself.

"There is no sir here," I said. "Just Sheik."

You may be interested to know that I had never called myself by that name before. Like so many other things, it simply appeared in my head at the opportune moment. She, of course, had no idea of this.

"Sheik," she echoed me as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and at that moment it became my name, the thing that I would be known by for the rest of my life. It was a part of me as much as blood and shadow, and she, who had given it to me, was trapped forever.

I dropped down upon the knees that I'm not sure I had, lowered what head I possessed to the floor, and said to her, "From the moment I step out of the shadows until the moment I return to them, I am yours, my lady. My life belongs to you, and every word I speak, every step I take, is for you. I will do anything and everything that you require, and I will give you anything that you ask for, including my life."

You may be thinking that I made this speech with great vehemence or fervency. Not true at all. Every inch of me already belonged to her. There was no need for fiery, passionate promises. I simply told her what was.

She must have been afraid. There is no real advantage in accepting the life of a Sheikah as your own. We are a cursed race. What we give, we also take, and I could see it in her eyes—she understood, my lady, that she belonged to me now just as much as I belonged to her.

"Very well," she said simply, and I felt my love for her so acutely that it was like pain. She explained what she wanted me to do for her. It was simple enough. A Gerudo called Ganondorf had uprooted the rightful king of the Hylians and taken the throne for himself; now he was searching for Zelda, presumably to kill her. She needed a disguise that was more than a disguise—she needed to hide herself, to sink beneath the consciousness of her guardian and, by all appearances, vanish completely. She wanted me to use her body in her stead until the time was right for her to emerge. She wanted me to hide her within myself.

To be truthful, I did not really care at the time about the war waging in her world, the struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. I did not care who might die and who might live and what the long battle cost to those who fought it. The tyrant king, Ganondorf, meant nothing to me. My only concern was my lady, my princess, who was placing her life in the hands of a twisted creature she knew nothing of. I ached for her.

"There is one more thing," she said, and I thought I saw sadness in her eyes. "There's a boy—well, a man now, really. His name is Link. He got involved in the struggle, in the early days when Ganondorf was not such a danger, and when I—" Her voice seemed to catch in her throat. "Well, suffice to say that he's well and trapped now. The goddesses have chosen him as Hero of Time, and given to him the task of destroying Ganondorf once and for all. It's my fault that all of this has happened to him, and there's nothing I can do to help him."

For a long moment I looked at her. "It's true that I do not know the circumstances surrounding this hero," I said slowly. "But surely if the goddesses are involved then the fault is out of your hands. There is nothing that any of us can do to change the paths given to us. All we can do is walk them."

She looked at me in silence for a moment. "What path have you been given to walk?" she asked softly.

The question struck me so hard that I rocked back from the force of it. Did I have a path? Was I really meant for something more than serving in the shadow of the one I belonged to? She was the first person to ever suggest such a thing, and I was dumbfounded.

My lady seemed to sense that her question had disconcerted me. "In any case," she went on, "Link is currently asleep in the Temple of Time. He was too young to bear the mantle of the Hero of Time, so the goddesses placed him under an enchanted sleep that will last until his seventeenth birthday. He is fifteen now," she added quietly.

"You want me to help him when he wakes," I perceived.

She nodded. "There is nothing I can do for him. And yet—even if the fault isn't mine, as you say, I cannot bear that he must risk his life to save this land and face the Black King, Ganondorf, all alone. If there's anything you can do to help him…"

I bowed my head. "I will, of course, do all that is possible to obey your request."

She was silent once more for a time, looking at me with eyes that were disconcertingly perceptive. "I'm not a very demanding person, or at least I'd like to think I'm not," she said quietly at last. "I think we would work better together if we considered our relationship to be a…a partnership of sorts."

I appreciated my lady's sentiment, but of course she was wrong. Our relationship was not symbiotic by any means. I knew perfectly well what I was—a parasite who would feed off of her as long as she allowed me to live. The least I could do was offer complete obeisance in return.

"You are kind," I told her. "But you would be unwise to trust me."

Her eyebrows arched. "Really."

I tried to explain it to her. "I am Sheikah, my lady. A creature of the shadows. You must keep as much of a distance from me as you can." I looked at her squarely. "As a shadow consumes all that it touches, so do I."

I know that she must have been afraid. But she met my gaze without even a bat of the eye.

"I choose to place my trust in you, Sheik," she said, quietly but firmly. "Perhaps someday you will return it."

It was agony to watch her make her first true mistake. I loved her for her kindness, her courage, her innocence. And because of that innocence, I would someday destroy her. There was nothing I could do to change that. There was nothing more I could say to warn her. I was who I was. And my lady…she would soon find out.

I came to her, and she embraced me in her arms and drew me inside, into the depths of the luminous spirit I craved so desperately. I let her be long enough to withdraw from the shadow world, then I wrapped myself around her mind and pushed her consciousness down into the deepest part of herself, where she could sleep, unhindered by my presence and no trouble to me.

She gave in so easily, without even the slightest resistance. Did she really mean to trust me? Did she actually believe that such naivety wouldn't result in her downfall?

I saw my first glimpse of the world through my lady's eyes. It was so different from the shadow world, and yet it was the same. My path was laid out before me. All I could do was walk it.

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To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

_AN:_ A day later than promised. Sorry about that. The power was out all day yesterday.

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Chapter 2

The sunlight that pierced through the windows of the Temple of Time fell in a sort of spotlight on the body that lay on the floor far below. From my vantage in the rafters just below the domed ceiling of the tall, octagonal room, that body was little more than a heap of green and gold, but when I sharpened my vision I could make out nearly every small detail of the sleeping boy, down to the fairy that lay motionless next his peaceful face.

I had long since memorized that face, along with the way his chest rose and fell as he breathed, the occasional mutter or clench of the hands as he dreamed, the way his eyelashes fluttered every now and then as though he longed to escape from the enchanted sleep. Every day for nearly two years I had come here—to watch him, to memorize him, to wait for him. Link, the Hero of Time. My lady's ward, and now, through her, mine as well.

Of course, I hardly spent all my time in idle repose in the Temple of Time. By this point I knew, from countless hours of exploration, every inch of the land of Hyrule, from the temple in the north to the vast lake in the south, and everything in between. I had walked the mazelike paths of the Lost Woods, explored the parched sands of the Gerudo desert in the west, found my way through the Sheikah catacombs beneath the town of Kakariko. Hyrule was a teeming mass of monsters and men who had long since given up hope, every piece of it reflecting the aura of evil that surrounded the citadel in the north, where the Black King dwelled.

Perhaps you wonder how, in a land teeming with Ganondorf's creatures, in the body of my lady the princess, no less, I managed to keep from being spotted, captured, or killed in two years.

The answer is simpler than you may think. We Sheikah are creatures of the shadow. It is in us to move like shadow, vanish like shadow; the eye of an outsider slides over us easily. There is no magic to it, no illusion, simply the innate ability to be as shadow—silent and unnoticed. There is nowhere I can't go, no man or monster I can't elude. Even the Black King himself wouldn't see me if I didn't wish him to.

Besides, I had long since disguised myself as my lady requested. I am, I suppose, a male, though I inhabit my lady's body. All the better to hide her behind the face and costume of a young Sheikah man. To that end, I cut my lady's hair and dressed in clothes that Impa had given me, hid my face behind a makeshift mask and wrapped nearly every inch of my lady's unmarked, manicured body in strips of linen, hiding her feminine curves and smooth hands.

It took me some time to train her body to deal with the rigors of Sheikah abilities. It's one thing to know acrobats and athletics beyond any Hyrulean; quite another to use them in a body that has never so much as climbed a mountain trail without the aid of a horse or litter. I lived through many nights of sore, strained muscles, bruises and aches before my lady's body became accustomed to my demands.

Soreness aside, my lady was well taken care of. For all Ganondorf's searching—and I had watched him send his murderous subjects to every corner of Hyrule in pursuit of my lady—he hadn't found as much as a hint, nor would he. I don't brag in saying that my lady had chosen well in using me to protect her. It's simply a fact.

The problem was Link. This hero, this boy that my lady wanted me to help. How to aid him without putting my lady in danger? How could I be of use to him when my foremost concern was my lady's protection? He would be in danger every moment of every day from the instant he opened his eyes, and there was no point in even trying to help him unless I knew something useful.

I had an idea. But it would have to wait to be put into action.

Today was Link's birthday.

Movement far below caught my eye: just the smallest stir, yet my attention was rigidly captured. He was waking. Sharpening my vision, I watched as hero and fairy stirred together.

The boy—the young man—woke much in the same way that I had, when I first opened my eyes in my lady's body. He looked around dazedly, his fairy bobbing excitedly around his head all the while, and then stared at himself, turning over hands, touching his face, as though he'd woken in a stranger's body.

Seven years had passed, according to my lady, since he first entered the temple and fell into the enchanted sleep. Of course his body was a stranger to him. _So you and I have something in common,_ I thought as I watched him intently.

I wrestled with the thought of revealing myself to him. I would have to do it sooner or later if I was to be of any help to him. But there was little I could say or do for him now. I could not, of course, inform him of my association with my lady. I didn't know what the relationship was between my lady and this young man, but even if they were close, I wouldn't risk jeopardizing my lady's safety.

Link turned to leave the room. I inched along the rafters, wondering whether to follow him, but before I could make a decision he halted in his tracks, almost as though—no. He couldn't have heard me.

But then he turned and looked up. At the rafters. At me.

I held myself completely still, slowed my breath to a near stop, and sank into the shadows as only a Sheikah can. And for the first time in two years, I looked into the eyes of the Hero of Time.

Blue. Not as dark and rich a blue as my lady's, but brighter, paler, like the color of the sky. They caught me, spellbound me, and in that instant I could see clearly why my lady wanted to protect this young man. He looked innocent. Gentle. His face was young and open, and his eyes—they were not the eyes of warriors as I knew them.

This boy was charged with destroying the Black King and saving all of Hyrule. This young man with his gentle eyes bore the weight of a godlike task on his slender shoulders, and he bore it alone. In that instant I knew that beyond my lady's orders, beyond my obligations, beyond any shadow of a doubt…I _wanted_ to help him.

But that couldn't be right. A Sheikah doesn't _want._ A Sheikah simply does. Desire is a luxury not afforded to creatures who spend their short and meaningless lives serving others. We might crave the energy, the life, that we can siphon off of our masters and mistresses, but we do not presume to involve ourselves in the world beyond shadows. Like the Sheikah before me, I would do only as my lady required and quietly accept my death when she had no more use for me. And if my lady required me to help this young man, it made no difference to me.

Did it?

I was disturbed enough by the path my thoughts were treading to keep still and silent, and moments later Link turned away from me, shrugging off whatever hint of my presence he might have felt—though I was sure that was impossible—and he left the temple, his fairy following close behind.

_He has an innocent look about him, doesn't he?_

My lady's voice, echoing in my head, echoing my thoughts.

_It hardly makes a difference how he looks,_ I replied neutrally.

_Perhaps not. But innocence _does_ make a difference. I worry for him._

_Surely the goddesses would not choose a hero who could not handle his tasks._

_It's not the tasks that I worry about,_ she said, _but their effect on him._

I dropped from my perch on the rafter, landing nimbly and unharmed on the floor far below. _Perhaps you worry too much._

I left the temple, swiftly now that Link was gone, and picked my way through the rubble that covered the road to the citadel of the Black King. My lady had described the former Hylian palace to me in its days of glory, but I could scarcely picture it for the stripped and parched land that had once been Hylian territory, covered by a canopy of ominously dark thunderclouds.

It is said that the weather in Hyrule reflects its mood, as though the realm is a living, breathing thing. In times of peace and prosperity the land is blessed often with clear skies, or watered with abundant rainfalls. But now the sky overhead was as gray and dry as the land itself. The clouds seemed to swirl in on themselves, into a central eye where the tower of the terrible citadel jutted up into the sky.

As I gazed up at that desolate, forbidden structure in the midst of a wasteland that was once the Hylian palace, I heard my lady's voice again, not without a tremor of apprehension.

_Where are you going?_

_Not to fear, my lady,_ I replied, moving toward the door.

_Sheik, that's Ganondorf's citadel!_

I smiled beneath the mask. _Precisely._

_But—_ She cut off as I pushed her consciousness away, back down into the place where sleep would overtake her.

_Sleep, my lady. All will be well._

I don't expect that anyone has ever simply walked through the front door of Ganondorf's citadel. In the blink of an eye I was surrounded by a curtain of the deadly curved blades called scimitars, each one wielded by a grim-faced Gerudo. The women of the desert are swift and proficient with their weapons, but they are nothing compared to the Sheikah. I could never have been ambushed if I didn't wish to be.

"Sheikah," one of the women spat. There is no love lost between my people and theirs.

Calmly, I raised my hands. "I come unarmed."

"Good," the same woman said with a thin smile. "Kill him."

Fifteen blades arched up in a flash of silver, but to my attuned eyes they almost appeared to be moving as though through water. I ducked down and kicked out at one of the women, my foot slamming into her shin with an audible snap. She cried out in pain and toppled sideways into one of her comrades, providing me with an opening. Within a fraction of a second I had leapt nimbly out of the circle and landed on the floor well out of range.

As the Gerudo whirled to face me, many of them gaping in open astonishment, I straightened and said mildly, "I seek service under the Black King."

"Don't be ridiculous," the woman who seemed to be their commander snapped, gesturing to her warriors. They spread out and inched forward, trying to surround me again.

"Please don't force me to show you what I'm capable of," I advised the nearest warrior. "You won't like it."

She bared her teeth in answer and leapt at me with a high-pitched cry. I ducked the swing of her scimitar, unsheathing the long dagger strapped to my ankle in the same swift motion. The Gerudo chopped down; I rolled to the side and kicked. The ball of my foot struck her blade in precisely the right place, knocking it from her grasp. I was behind her before the woman had time to blink. Grabbing one arm and wrenching it up behind her back, I pressed the dagger lightly against her throat.

The woman froze. So did her comrades.

"Take me to the Black King," I ordered their leader.

The commander's mouth twisted with fury—then abruptly, the expression disappeared from her face as her eyes found something behind me, to be replaced with something close to terror. She dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead to the floor; all of her comrades, except the one I held hostage, followed suit. I didn't need the show of obeisance to know who had appeared behind me. I could feel his presence, thick, visceral, filling the air.

Sheikah are rarely afraid. But I cannot deny that at that moment, I knew terror.

I let go of my hostage—she immediately slid to the floor—and turned to face the Black King, struggling to keep on my feet. No wonder the Gerudo women were so quick to prostrate themselves. As Ganondorf's eyes met mine, I felt my legs shaking, threatening to give out.

He stood head and shoulders taller than me, his Gerudo heritage apparent in vividly red hair and olive-toned skin. He was broad of shoulder and thickly muscled in his arms and legs, wearing black armor that made him appear even more bulky than he already was. There was a smile on his face and a slight gleam in his yellow eyes—in any other man I'd call it madness, but the expression upon his face was one of such utmost reason that I hardly knew what to think. All the same my breath caught in my throat; he radiated power of a kind I had never felt before and hoped never to feel again.

"Hello, Sheikah," he said in a tone rich with amusement.

I did, at that moment, drop to my knees and lower my head before him. "Black King," I whispered. It was not an act.

Every step he took toward me made my heart pound and my throat dry until it was as parched as the desert sands. Every instinct, my own and my lady's, screamed at me to run, but I forced myself to remain where I was. If I fled now, I could not help Link.

"That was impressive, Sheikah," he said somewhere above my head; I dared not look up. "Evading some of my best warriors so easily…it would be a shame to kill you."

I had no doubt that if he intended to kill me, I would already be dead, and my lady with me. What was I thinking, bringing her to this place? What had possessed me? Aiding Link meant nothing if my lady was harmed.

There was nothing to do now but go forward with my plan. "I've come to serve you, Black King."

"And what do you have to offer me, Sheikah?"

"Nothing more than my abilities and my life," I said, staring rigidly at the floor. "But I offer both to you."

"Look at me, Sheikah."

I was motionless, frozen with terror. I couldn't do as he commanded. He would see her. We hen he looked at me—mask or not, Sheikah visage or not—he would see my lady hiding behind my eyes.

A large hand reached down and grasped my chin, raising it. No choice. No choice. I met his eyes.

"Eyes like blood," he murmured in a caressing tone, letting me go. "Eyes that see all. Eyes that know the truth. That's what they say about you Sheikah. Is it true?"

"Yes, Black King," I whispered, unable to tear my gaze away.

"Then you'll be my eyes," he said in a voice that was not without kindness. "You'll go where I can't go and see what I can't see. Won't you?"

"Yes, Black King."

I sold my soul to him at that moment. Whatever piece of my twisted spirit that my lady did not possess, it was in Ganondorf's hands now.

He gave me his orders. I waited until I was far away from the citadel before I sank to the ground, covered my face with my hands, and began to helplessly laugh.

I was to follow Link.

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To be continued.


	3. Chapter 3

_AN:_ An update on time. Thank you guys for the reviews, they're very much appreciated.

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Chapter 3

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Kakariko Village is nothing special on the surface. There's little to say of the tiny village at the foot of Death Mountain, barely more than a cluster of houses thrown haphazardly together under a rickety windmill. But beneath the surface is a hidden secret that few Hyruleans know of. If the citizens of Kakariko knew that their sleepy village was once a Sheikah birthplace, that buried in the earth beneath it is a mazelike catacomb where shadow still lurks…if they knew, I doubt they would make their homes there.

The village is my birthplace as well. Impa's dark and dusty house, boarded up and shuttered and left alone for years and years, is the place where I first opened my eyes—my lady's eyes—and saw the other world, the world beyond shadow.

Perhaps it's because of that that I found myself in Kakariko again after leaving Ganondorf's citadel. I was reeling still from our meeting when I climbed up onto the roof of Impa's house and dropped down through the trap door, landing with a thump on the wood floor below, raising a thick cloud of dust. I'm not sure why I returned there. Perhaps I wanted to immerse myself in shadow for a while, which, horrific as it was, was nonetheless as familiar to me as my own mind.

But before I could even move, a hand shot suddenly out of the dark. Grabbing me by the throat, it slammed me back against a wall; I caught a glimpse of eyes as red as my own glaring furiously through the gloom.

"_What have you done?"_

The voice, of course, was Impa's. No one but another Sheikah could have ever caught me off-guard.

I grasped her wrist in an attempt to deter her before she tightened her hand enough to choke the life from me. "Please do not damage my lady's body."

Her hand did tighten just slightly, a warning. "If it means damaging Zelda to get a traitor out of her body, then by the goddesses I swear I'll do it."

Impa is intensely devoted to my lady, and she was fiercely against the idea of the princess willingly binding her life with a Sheikah, though she helped my lady to do so nonetheless. I had my suspicions that Impa was watching me, following me, out of her fear that I would somehow harm my lady, though of course this was impossible to confirm—Impa is, after all, a Sheikah.

Now I knew. She must have seen me go to the Black King.

"You're mistaken, Impa," I said as politely as I knew how. "I am no traitor."

Her hand tightened another fraction. "And I'm sure you have a perfectly reasonable explanation for visiting Ganondorf's citadel."

"I do."

I saw a flicker of surprise in Impa's eyes. She glared at me for a moment, and then let me go and stepped back, just enough to give me some space but close enough to attack should I give her the wrong answer. Even for a Sheikah, Impa is blindingly fast and talented with weapons to deadly degrees. I emphatically hoped never to face her in a fight.

"Let's hear it, then," she said in a dangerously even tone.

"You know that my lady asked me to help Link in any way that I could," I said without stalling. When she nodded, I went on, "I cannot help him without knowing anything useful. Thanks to my association with Ganondorf, I now know of the sages and some of the Black King's plans to trap Link. I can use that knowledge to guide him and help him stay one step ahead of the Black King and his monsters. And what better place to hide my lady than right under Ganondorf's nose? He'll never think to look for her among his own subjects."

Impa looked at me in silence for a long moment. I could tell that she was mulling over all that I said, weighing the potential risks against the benefits.

At last she shook her head. "You're a fool, you know that?"

I blinked at her, caught off-guard for the second time that day. "Why do you say that?" I asked, rather defensively.

Impa shook her head with a sad sort of smile on her face. "How long have you lived in this world, Sheik?"

I eyed her warily. "One year, ten months, and fifteen days. Why?"

"Almost two years," Impa echoed. "Do you realize that if you were any race other than Sheikah, you would be little more than an infant? You're a newborn, Sheik. You know nothing of this world. What makes you think you can pull off the role of a double agent?"

I confess her attitude stung me. To hide my resentment, I turned away to examine the little trinkets she had accumulated in her house, dusty and disused on old, rotting shelves. "I am Sheikah, Impa. I will do as I must."

Impa rolled her eyes. "You really think that's all there is to it, don't you? Have you thought about any of the consequences? Have you thought of the potential backlash if your role as a double agent is ever discovered?"

"I won't let Ganondorf discover me."

"I'm not talking about Ganondorf," she said.

I glanced back at her. At the time, I wasn't what she meant. In any event, it didn't matter, as I told her. "I'm going to be dead soon, Impa. There is nothing in this world that can affect me."

She looked at me squarely. "Someday, Sheik, you're going to find out you're wrong. And not after your death."

I didn't believe her. How long would I spend in this land? A few more months, a year at the most? Once Ganondorf was vanquished, my lady would have no more use for me, and a Sheikah without a master or mistress to serve is a dead Sheikah. Like true shadows, our existence is maintained only by those we serve. How can a shadow exist with nothing to cast it?

Impa knew all this. She had survived for years and years—I don't know how long, it may be centuries—by serving the members of the Hylian royal family. But for me, who shared a body with my mistress, there was no possibility of entering into the service of another when my lady no longer needed me.

Rather than explaining it all to Impa, I let my attention be caught by a glint of gold in the far corner of the room. An instrument sat propped upright against the wall, a delicate stringed creation, and I, who had never touched a musical instrument in my short life, was nonetheless drawn to it.

"Impa, what is this?" I asked, approaching it to examine it closely.

"It's called a lyre."

My fingers fairly itched to touch it. "Does my lady know how to play one?"

"She knows the harp. It's similar, though larger."

I reached out hesitantly—Impa did not try to stop me—and closed my hand around the curved arm of its vaguely horseshoe-shaped frame, surprised by how thin and light it felt. Touching it, I realized that the lyre was not made of gold, as I had originally thought, but of wood painted with gold gilt and carved with an olive branch on each arm. The arms connected at the top by a bridge, and the lyre was strung from top to bottom with seven taut strings.

The instant I held it in my hands I knew I could play it, despite having never touched one before. Music burst in my mind, delicate, wistful notes that I had never heard before, dazzling me with their beauty. I cannot describe to you the joy and pain I felt upon hearing them. It was as though they found a place inside of me that was not steeped in shadow and lit it more brilliantly than the sun, so that for the very first time in my hollow existence, I saw beauty in the world.

It was some time before I realized that Impa had her hand on my arm, slowly, incessantly drawing me back to that gloomy house in the midst of Kakariko Village. When I realized where I was and what had happened, I didn't know how I could ever bear to let the lyre go. Nevertheless, it was Impa's possession, not mine, and besides, Sheikah did not desire material things. Silently, I offered it to her.

She pushed it back toward me. "You keep it. I think you need it."

I was speechless. The very idea that someone could even consider giving such a precious thing to me…it was beyond my comprehension. I stared up at Impa, wordlessly, questioning.

She gazed at me squarely for a moment, placing her hands against her hips. "Use it well," she ordered.

I understood then that this instrument had power, power that I could use if I cared to. Ideas, notions, songs ran incessantly through my mind until I firmly pushed back the flood, bringing my attention to the here and now. There would be time to experiment with the lyre to my heart's content. Until then, I had work to do.

* * *

I left Kakariko and went south along the eastern border of Hyrule, after handing the lyre over to the lesser shadows that always lurked around me. It would remain there until I summoned it, like everything other than the few weapons I carried on my person. It's impractical for a Sheikah to travel with food and all the other supplies that a normal person requires, but I had to feed myself, or my lady's body would starve. This way I didn't have to carry anything that might burden me or slow me down. The lesser shadows carried it all for me.

My first instinct was to track down Link, but I held off. There were other tasks that needed accomplishing first. I would carry out Ganondorf's orders only when I was certain that those orders wouldn't result in harm to Link or anyone else who was important, namely the sages.

I understand that the sages are considered legends or myths of sorts in Hyrule. I can assure you with certainty, however, that they exist. Goddess-chosen, like the Hero of Time, it is said the sages join their powers together with the hero to defeat the Black King, Ganondorf. If I was to help Link to accomplish this defeat, I needed to protect the sages to the best of my ability. Strange: where once I had worried only about protecting my lady, my list of charges had grown to a virtual regiment. My lady, Link, and now, seven sages.

Forest, fire, water, spirit, shadow, light, and time: the basic elements that composed every inch of Hyrule. I had some ideas about where to find the sages of forest, fire, and, of course, shadow. The others would reveal themselves in time.

You would think that I'd go to look for the sage of shadow first. But for some reason, I had it in me to pay a visit to the Lost Woods. Perhaps I was being guided myself, or perhaps I simply wanted to see the place where Link had come from again. My lady told me that he was a native of Kokiri Village, though clearly he was not a Kokiri himself, or he'd never have grown into adulthood. Still, it was his home as much as the shadow was home to me, and I was curious.

The village was, of course, deserted. It had long since been overrun by monsters of every type, sent by Ganondorf when he set out to conquer every corner of Hyrule. He may have conquered the Kokiri Village, but he had not conquered its people—they had fled, I suspected, into the depths of the Lost Woods, a forest so thick and deep that no one would have a chance of finding them. No one except me.

Where do you look for a sage of forest? Among the forest dwellers, of course.

* * *

To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4

_AN:_ Thanks again to those who continue to read and review. I'll just continue delivering. If you like what you see here and elsewhere on my account, hop on over to my fanworks livejournal, linked in the profile, for more fanfiction and other goodies.

Thanks again.

* * *

Chapter 4

At the edges of the forest, the dying sun lengthened shadows and cast gold-orange shafts of light at steep angles through gaps in the leaves, but as I moved deeper into the Lost Woods the canopy overhead thickened so much that barely any light shone through at all. My eyesight in the dark is just as good as it is in bright sunlight, and so I found my way through the forest with ease, avoiding the beaten paths. You cannot trust trails in the Lost Woods. They're often stamped in by Skullkids, the souls of children lost in the forest, who try to lure travelers in the woods so deep that they'll never find their way out.

I could have moved easily through the treetops and let the canopy provide me with perfect cover, but there wasn't a soul nearby to see me, and I appreciated the chance to stretch my legs. No one ever said that the Sheikah ways are easy, but we use the tools we're given without complaint. Maybe if we did complain, we'd have received a better lot in life.

Back then, I banished such thoughts as soon as they came to me. It was far easier to follow my role without question, and I had been given an important one in this world. How many Sheikah can say that they had a hand in saving all of Hyrule from immeasurable evil? Impa, perhaps, and now me. Not that my role will be credited after my death, if even remembered.

Maybe that's why I want to tell this story. To be remembered. To remind someone that however short and unremarkable my existence, I was here.

I had the notion that the sage of forest was a Kokiri, which made every logical sense. "If I were a Kokiri, where would I hide?" I murmured softly to myself as I stepped over the gnarled roots of an enormous oak tree. They could be anywhere in this vast forest; finding the one who happened to be the sage was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Fortunately, I am Sheikah.

People often have the mistaken notion that Sheikah are prophets. It's not precisely true, but we do possess a certain level of foresight, or perhaps intuition is a better word. It doesn't serve us as a means for telling the future—more as a way of simply…knowing the right path, so to speak. We sense things that others don't sense; we see details that others miss. I couldn't have told you where the sage of forest or any other Kokiri was. I simply knew I was heading in the right direction.

I didn't need my intuition to guide me for long. Pausing beneath the canopy of a willow tree to take stock of my surroundings, a faint sound reached my ears—high pitched, jaunty notes in a husky voice, like that of a flute.

_Skullkids?_ I wondered. _Or a Kokiri?_ It was worth a look, in any event. Grasping a low branch of the willow, I quickly pulled myself up into the tree's cover. From there, traveling along the tree tops was almost as simple as walking on the ground. I followed the music, jumping swiftly and silently from branch to branch.

At last I halted in another willow tree at the edge of a clearing, lit with the last rays of the dying sun. In the center of the clearing a log lay rotting in the grass; on it sat a young girl. Her vividly green hair was the first feature I noticed, the mark of a Kokiri. From my angle I could see her face—serene, content, her eyes closed as she played the instrument she held to her lips, a round creation made of clay, called an ocarina. It was through this that she produced her light, cheerful notes; several Skullkids were grouped around her, joining in her song with flutes and drums.

She looked to be about ten or so, though of course no one can tell a Kokiri's age just by looking. Kokiri do not age past childhood, at least in appearance. I've even heard rumors that as long as they remain in the forest, they live forever.

This girl didn't have the look of someone who had lived long and seen terrible things, as Impa did. Nor did she have the solemn wisdom-beyond-her-years gaze of my lady. Still, she seemed to me to be far more than a simple child playing her ocarina in the woods. Was it her? Could she be the sage?

I remained where I was for a time, listening to her song. It was soothing, in a way. It made me feel almost…happy.

The lyre was in my hands before I even realized I had summoned it. I hesitated for a moment, listening to the jaunty notes as they rose and fell. My fingers plucked a string. It sounded right. I closed my eyes and simply played, letting the music flow over me like water, following the melody in my ears. Somehow, it transitioned seamlessly through my fingers to the lyre.

Through the flow of the song I sensed the girl's attention shift; I knew she heard me, but it didn't seem to matter. We simply played, the girl and I, the Skullkids, the insects humming in the grass.

The song died away as the sun at last set and stars appeared one by one above the trees. I let the sound of my lyre fade away, feeling unaccountably peaceful. The Skullkids escaped into the darkening twilight, leaving the girl sitting alone on her log, waiting for me.

I let the shadows reach out and take the lyre from me, then dropped down out of the willow tree. The girl turned to smile at me as I approached the center of the clearing.

"Hello, Sheikah. I've never seen one of your kind in the Lost Woods."

It was strange to hear her. Her voice was a child's, and yet I sensed that someone much older was speaking with it. "My name is Sheik," I told her, not sure what else to say.

"I'm Saria." She held out a small hand. I hesitated, then took it. "It's nice to meet you, Sheik," she said firmly, squeezing once and letting go. Then she smiled again. "You played so well. I would almost think you've heard the song before."

I shook my head. "I haven't."

"Oh, I know. You couldn't have heard it before. There's only one other person who knows it, aside from the Skullkids. And you, now." Saria rubbed a sleeve over her ocarina, as though polishing it. "I just call it Saria's song. I put a special power in it." She glanced up at me with a mysterious gleam in her eyes. "You won't share it with anyone, will you?"

I smiled beneath the mask. "I'm Sheikah. I'm very practiced at keeping secrets."

"Good." A peaceful look settled over her face. Saria put the ocarina to her mouth again and played, closing her eyes.

I slid down until I sat in the grass, and listened. The song was lower, huskier, and—I can't quite describe it, but there was something fierce about it, something primal. I felt the wind stir as the song went on, leaves rustling as though the trees themselves were bending in to listen. I don't know what special power Saria had put into this song, but it was strange and beautiful and more than a little discomforting.

Then she stopped, so abruptly that I was surprised. Her eyes opened, and she looked at me in silence for a moment.

"You're one of Ganondorf's, aren't you?" she said softly at last.

I was surprised, but not alarmed. Something about this girl made me feel peaceful. "What makes you say that?"

"You have the taint of him," she said gently. "It's like a scent, I suppose. I can't smell it, but the forest can, and it doesn't like it." She shook her head, a puzzled expression on her face. "I don't understand. You don't seem anything like his monsters."

"I should hope not," I said, and I explained that I'd entered Ganondorf's service to help bring about his downfall. "There are some people that I'm trying to help. The Hero of Time, and the sages."

Her lips parted. "The sages?"

"Yes." I watched her closely. "I'm here to search for the sage of forest."

She gazed at me for a moment, then abruptly stood, a decisive look on her face. "Will you come with me, Sheik? I'd like to show you something."

I followed her down unfamiliar forest paths, though Saria strode along purposefully, seeming to know where we were going. At night the Lost Woods were not as dark and silent as I'd expected—compared to the shadow, they were alive with activity. Fireflies hovered everywhere I looked, winking in and out of the darkness. Insects hummed in the grass and toads warbled on the banks of ponds and streams.

The moon had begun to peek above the canopy when we came to a vast clearing. Stretched across it was a mass of wild, tangled hedges. I thought I could see paths here and there through breaks in the mess of branches, then I realized—

"This is a maze?"

"Yes," Saria said quietly, gazing out at the expansive clearing. "It's here to protect a secret, one that I hoped Ganondorf would never find. But now his monsters patrol the maze, so I can't get through." She shuddered. "They walk on two legs, but they have the heads of pigs. The trees described them for me."

With every word Saria spoke I became more and more certain that she was the sage of forest. But now was the time to deal with the problem at hand. I knew the creatures she described—they were called Moblins. Vicious creations of Ganondorf's, though profoundly stupid. I could hear them clearly in the maze, grunting and snuffling as they patrolled its passages.

"I can get us past them," I said with certainty.

Saria looked up at me, hope dawning in her eyes. "You can?"

I eyed the maze. "Are those hedges sturdy enough to stand on?"

"Yes, I think s—" Saria cut off with a small gasp of surprise as I wrapped an arm around her waist and jumped, landing lightly on the first row of hedges.

The Kokiri clung to me tightly. "Warn me next time you're going to do that."

"My apologies." Now I could see the layout of the maze and the Moblins who patrolled it. They kept their gazes ahead, never looking up or even behind them, but as I've said, they're not the brightest creatures in Hyrule. There was a large, hulking shadow at the end of the maze, but I couldn't make it out; no point in worrying about it until I could. "Now," I said to Saria.

"Huh?" Once again Saria gasped and clung to me as I leapt nimbly across the hedges, flying soundlessly over the heads of the patrolling Moblins. Saria was a light burden; she didn't slow me down for a moment.

Soon enough we landed on the last row of hedges, and Saria reeled slightly, looking dizzy. I grasped her arm to steady her and said reproachfully, "I did warn you."

Wordlessly, Saria pointed. I looked forward and saw a stretch of narrow land between two ridges carved in the earth, ending in a set of mossy stone stairs. Standing before the stairs was a giant Moblin armed with a club that was taller than two of me. He swung his head left to right, nostrils flaring and small, mean eyes searching, then looked straight at us. With an angry bellow, the Moblin brandished his club and began to stomp toward us, the earth shaking with every step.

Saria shrank back. "We've got to run. There's no way we can defeat that creature."

I barely heard her, eyeing the ground between us and the Moblin, its wide-spread hooves, the stairs beyond it. "We don't have to defeat it. We just have to get around it."

"But won't it just chase us?"

I glanced at Saria and pointed. "Look. It's wedged between the ridges. It can't even turn around. Moreover, I'm willing to bet that it will forget us completely once we're out of its sight. Moblins aren't precisely clever, you know."

Saria worried her lower lip, staring at me. "You're sure you can get us past that monster?"

I bowed and offered a hand. "Positive."

She looked at me for another moment, then hesitantly reached out and placed her hand in mine. Swiftly I pulled her close and twined an arm around her waist. "Ready?"

"No." Saria shut her eyes tightly. "But go ahead."

I jumped down from the hedges and ran straight toward the giant Moblin. It gave a bellow of anger and raised its club, arching it over its head and down toward us. I jumped aside just before it slammed into the earth; the impact shook the ground beneath us, but I remained on my feet and darted straight through the open gap between the Moblin's house-sized hooves.

Once past it, I deposited Saria at the foot of the stairs. "Go," I told her, and whirled to face the Moblin. Sure enough, though it howled with rage and glared over its shoulder with one massive eye, it couldn't turn. The return trip would be easier if I killed the thing, I reflected, but even my long dagger, which was the length of my forearm, wouldn't be more than a pinprick on the Moblin's leathery hide. There was nothing more I could do. I turned away and followed Saria up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs a meadow stretched out, surrounded by a ring of trees. At the far end stood a strange stone structure, half-hidden beneath the trees that sheltered it and the vines and ivy that covered it. At one time a set of stairs carved from rock had clearly led up to massive doors, but the stairs had crumbled, eaten away by time's passage. Somehow the structure seemed to me like it belonged in the forest, almost as if it had sprung up out of the ground like the trees around it, though I knew that was impossible.

"What is this place?" I asked Saria.

"It's the temple of the forest," she said quietly, gazing up at the stone structure. "The place where all the forest's power gathers."

It was time, I thought, to determine if what I suspected was true. "This must be where the sage of forest makes his or her home."

A shadow seemed to cross Saria's face. "It isn't home to anyone now, aside from Ganondorf's creatures. In my sleep I heard the temple crying out in pain, begging to be rid of the parasites inside it. I've been trying to get to it for months, but I could never find a way past the Moblins." She smiled sadly. "And now that I'm finally here, there's probably nothing I can do. At least, not until Link comes back to the Lost Woods."

I looked at her sharply. "You know who you are, don't you?"

"You mean the sage of forest?" she replied quietly. "Yes, I've known for some time now. The forest has always spoken to me. How did _you_ know?"

"I guessed," I admitted. "But I wasn't certain."

Saria nodded gravely. "I knew what you were looking for when you first mentioned the Hero of Time."

The girl was full of surprises. "Then you know who the Hero of Time is, too?"

"Yes," she said, though she looked at me quizzically. "It's Link, isn't it?"

I bowed my head. "That is his name."

"Link is a good friend of mine," Saria said quietly, looking toward the temple again. "He used to live with us in the Kokiri Village. When he left seven years ago…well, he always seemed like he was meant for greater things. When he didn't come back, I thought maybe he was off on some adventure…it's only recently that I spoke with him again, through Saria's song." Her fingers closed reflexively around her ocarina, then abruptly she shook her head as though chasing memories away. "Are you a sage too?"

"No," I said. "Just a guide."

Saria turned to look at me, her eyes full of earnestness. "Maybe I have no right to ask this, but will you help me, Sheik? I must rid the Forest Temple of Ganondorf's monsters. They're polluting the entire forest from the inside out…everything will wither and die if the temple isn't purged."

I was beginning to wonder exactly what my purpose was supposed to be. Strange enough to be looking after the Hero of Time and the sages like a nursemaid when my first and only priority should be my lady, but now a temple, too? No Sheikah I'd ever heard of meddled in wars and uprisings and such worldly affairs. We simply fulfilled our purposes and disappeared. Even Impa only ever protected the daughters of the royal family.

And yet Saria, her face full of trust…I didn't want to disappoint her.

"I'm not sure what you and I could hope to do," I began cautiously.

"Nothing, of course," Saria said quickly. "Alone our efforts would be pointless. I can't fend off Ganondorf's monsters, but Link can. Will you help him find his way here?" She glanced worriedly at the temple again. "I want to add my powers to his and help him defeat Ganondorf. But I have to help the forest first. I can't just leave it alone."

_You see?_ I told myself. It was all the same. Save the forest temple, protect Saria, aid Link, fulfill my lady's request. It all led to one outcome, one primary goal. That was the only interest I had in it.

"I'll find him," I promised Saria.

Her face cleared, and she smiled at me with dazzling relief. "Thank you."

"And you?" I asked her. "What will you do in the meantime?"

"I'll go into the temple and battle Ganondorf's forces my own way," she said decisively. "Not by taking on his monsters, but by strengthening the forest to withstand them until they're gone."

I studied her momentarily, wondering just how much power a sage had. "Won't that be dangerous?"

"Probably. But I have to try." Saria met my gaze, steely-eyed. "Bring him soon, will you? I'm afraid there's not much time left."

* * *

To be continued.


	5. Chapter 5

_AN:_ Slight change to the updates—I'll be uploading new chapters on Mondays instead of Sundays from now on. There will still be Thursday updates as well.

Thanks for your reviews.

* * *

Chapter 5

Once Saria disappeared through the doors of the Forest Temple, I had the vague but irresistible notion that Link was on his way here already. It was my intuition speaking, of course, and if that were true, all I had to do was wait for him and make sure he got inside the temple. Maybe I wouldn't even need to speak to him at all. I don't know why the idea of talking face-to-face with Link made me so nervous. It simply did.

I climbed up into the cover of a tree to wait for him. I would see him when he came, but he wouldn't see me unless I chose to reveal myself.

While I waited, I thought. Songs had power. I could see that now. Saria's song enchanted the forest creatures and, according to her, could allow her to speak with Link, even over vast distances. The second song she'd played for me had all the power of the Lost Woods thrumming through it; I might not understand the forest, but that much I could hear clearly. Impa had a lullaby for my lady that I had once heard her play—that song could get her almost anywhere she wanted, just because it was a sign of my lady, the princess. What sort of power could I put into a song?

I had the notion that if Saria's song could allow her to speak over vast distances, would it not be possible to create a song that could transport the player over vast distances? I was thinking of the maze filled with Moblins. I would not always be here to help Saria or anyone else cross it. If I created a song keyed to this precise location—yes, I could infuse it with the strange, alien power I felt in this place—no one who knew it would have to face Ganondorf's monsters to get here.

I had the lyre in my hands before I even realized that I had summoned it. I could hear music inside me, soft notes drifting up from that bright place inside. I waited until they filled my mind, and played.

It was a strange song—not precisely happy, and not sad either. Sort of…stately, I thought. Maybe even wise. I kept the Lost Woods as I knew it in the forefront of my mind—ancient trees, cool shadows, rustling leaves, fireflies, Skullkids, the temple, Saria—until it seemed to me that the forest was part of the song and the song a part of the forest, connected, one and the same. And I knew that I had achieved my goal.

You would think that my first priority would be finding Link and teaching the song to him, but it wasn't. I suppose I wanted to see what he could do without my help. He was, after all, a warrior, charged with the near-impossible task of defeating Ganondorf. If he couldn't get past a group of Moblins, I wouldn't hope much for Hyrule's future.

That was when I heard the angry roar of the giant Moblin who guarded the stairs. I sat straight up at the sound and inched along the branch supporting me until I could see clearly through gaps in the leaves.

A white fairy hovered into view, skimming quickly around the clearing as though scouting. I stilled myself as much as I knew how, willing myself to blend in with the trees. Who knows what a fairy sees? Maybe they catch details, like Sheikah. I didn't want her to catch me.

"Navi, what is this place? Is this where Saria is?"

I knew, without needing to be told, that it was his voice. I watched him appear in the clearing, a young man dressed all in green, a shield strapped to his arm and a sword on his back. I already knew his features, his expressions, even the way he moved, somewhat. But when I saw his eyes again, for only the second time…what was this strange pull? Unsettled, I let the shadows conceal me as much as I dared.

The fairy's voice was too small for me to hear normally, so I sharpened my hearing until every word of the conversation was clear to me. "—probably inside," Navi was saying. "I wouldn't want to be alone in these woods with all these monsters around."

"But she said it might not be safe in the temple," Link replied absently. He was gazing around the clearing with a preoccupied look, looking in the trees and scrutinizing the crumbling structure of the temple. "Navi, do you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

Link stepped forward, closing a hand around the hilt of the sword on his back. "I don't know. I feel something strange. Almost like…" I saw his eyes flicker toward the tree where I was hidden.

I stilled completely, though my mind was anything but. _How? How does he sense me? He can't sense me. It's impossible!_

"Link, watch out!" Navi cried.

He whirled, drawing the sword in one swift movement, and I saw what the fairy had spotted—a pair of huge wolves, their eyes colored an unnatural yellow. They slunk out of the growth, growling low in their throats. Forest creatures, enchanted by Ganondorf to attack the Hero of Time.

Sure enough, the two wolves leapt as one for Link's throat, snarling. I tensed, but Link flung up his shield arm and bashed one of the wolves in the ribs, knocking it aside with a pained yelp. The other was skewered on his sword in a flash of silver and crimson blood; he yanked the sword from the wolf's body and whirled in time to stop its brother's leap with one quick slash.

I let out my breath, abruptly aware that I'd been holding it throughout the quick, vicious fight. Link had crouched to check the body of the second wolf, which was still twitching in its death throes, when movement caught my eye—a third wolf was creeping from the trees behind Link, belly low to the ground.

Without thinking, without hesitating, I yanked my dagger from its sheath on my ankle and threw it. It shot through the air, skimming dangerously close over Link's head to embed itself in the third wolf's eye.

As the thing collapsed, blood pouring from its ruined socket, Link leapt to his feet, hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. "All right, who's there? Show yourself!"

No use hiding now. I dropped from the tree, landing with a thump on the grass below.

"Hello, hero."

Link stared at me, the tip of his sword slowly lowering to the ground.

"Who are you?"

I gazed at him in silence for a second or two, taking in the presence of him. "A guide."

He watched me warily, stepping back as I approached the wolf to retrieve my dagger. I put a foot on the wolf's head and yanked the weapon from its socket, hardly knowing what to think. Why could I feel his eyes on me so acutely? Why were my nerves humming as though I were in combat? Most importantly, _how_ had he sensed my presence earlier? What _was_ this boy?

"So this is the Hero of Time," I muttered, wiping the dagger clean of blood. Now that I thought of it, how had he sensed me, but not the third wolf? I glanced back at him. "Didn't you hear it coming? The wolf? Aren't you supposed to be aware of these things?"

He blinked, looking startled. "Well—I—it snuck up on me. How am I supposed to—"

"You _are_ supposed to," I interrupted forcefully, stepping toward him; he shrank back warily, the sword raising slightly in his hand, but I didn't stop, didn't hesitate. "Are you not the hero? Are you not the one chosen to purge this land of the ultimate evil? How do you expect to live long enough to fulfill your purpose if you let one wolf get the better of you? _How?"_

Link stared down at me wordlessly; I was close enough that I could see the different shades of blue in his eyes. "My name is Sheik," I said, stepping back. "I've been sent to help you."

"Sent by who?" he demanded.

I smiled slightly beneath the mask. "Good. At least you know enough to question me. I was given my task by the princess."

It was as though that one small word had lit a fire inside of him. "You know Zelda? Where is she? Is she all right?" Link slid his sword back into his sheath and stared at me intently. "How do you know her? Are you one of her guards? Do you know Impa?"

I shrank away slightly from the flood of questions. "I know only that she's safe," I said, too cautious to risk revealing my lady, even to the Hero of Time. "I receive my orders through Impa."

Link's shoulders sagged. He stepped away and sank down onto a fallen log, propping his shield in front of him and resting his hands on it. His fairy settled on his shoulder, fanning her wings back and forth. "Well, so much for getting my hopes up. I thought maybe you might know what happened to her. You've got a sharp look about you."

"Impa assures me that she's fine," I told him, wanting to assuage his disappointment.

He looked up at me. "What did you say your name was? Sheik?"

"Yes."

He offered a hand. I hesitated, then moved forward to take it. His grip was strong but not trying; he gave a firm shake and let go. "My name's Link."

"I know."

"Oh." A smile curved his lips. "So you're the one who's been stalking me." He said it jokingly, as though the idea that a Sheikah had been watching him was not at all strange.

"I don't stalk. I follow." Inside, my mind was in turmoil. He had known I was watching him. Moreover he appeared to be neither hostile nor afraid at my presence. And here I was talking with him like we were already friends. What was I doing? I didn't want to get close with this boy. I wanted to do my job and have done with this world.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Link asked, eyeing me curiously. "Aside from you saving my life, of course."

I glanced aside. "As I've said, I've been sent here to help you. And I have a message from Saria."

Link straightened, fixing me again with his intent gaze. "You know where she is?"

I indicated the temple behind us. "She went inside the temple to defend it from Ganondorf's creatures as best as she could. But she needs your help to purge it completely."

"She went in there _alone?"_ he demanded, jumping to his feet. "Is she crazy? Of all the stupid things—"

He started toward it as though he'd forgotten my presence completely, then suddenly he hesitated, halting in his tracks. "Is she…I mean, did she say anything?" He glanced back. "About me?"

I looked at him, wondering at his sudden change of mood. "She told me that you once lived together. She called you her friend."

"I see." Link raised a hand encased in a leather gauntlet, gazing at it. A sad, slightly bitter smile had appeared on his face. "I wonder what she'll say when she sees me like this."

Abruptly I understood. Saria had known him seven years ago, when he was a young boy. For Link, the world had changed overnight, but Saria had lived through many hard years as the tyranny of the Black King spread across Hyrule. Now the friend she hadn't seen in seven years had suddenly reappeared, and he was changed in ways that Saria would never experience.

"The flow of time is always cruel," I said softly. "It passes quicker for some than others, and one day the flow must end…but if this girl is truly your friend, even time itself could not erase that."

Link gazed at me in silence for a moment, then he smiled. "I'm not sure exactly what that's supposed to mean, but somehow it makes me feel better."

I shook my head, torn between exasperation and amusement. Then I saw the ocarina hanging from his belt.

"Wait," I said on impulse, summoning the lyre into my hands. Link stared at the instrument, startled.

"Wow. That's a neat trick."

"That ocarina," I said, gesturing. "Can you play it?"

"Oh, yeah." Link took it in hand, raising it to eye-level. "I mean, I'm not that great, but I'm all right with it."

"I'm going to teach you something," I told him, strumming my fingers across the lyre's strings. "A song that might be of use to you. Listen closely."

I played just the six simple notes of the melody of the Minuet of Forest, as I had decided to call it, then repeated them. Link cocked his head, listening intently, and when I stopped he raised the ocarina to his lips and repeated the song perfectly.

He looked curiously at the ocarina when he was finished. "That was strange. I felt…" He shook his head. "It gave me shivers, that song."

"It has power in it," I told him, pleased that he'd picked it up so quickly. "Play it, and it will bring you to this place, to this temple, no matter where you are in Hyrule."

"Where were you when I was dodging those Moblins back there?" he asked with a pained look.

I smiled despite myself. "Good luck, hero."

"It's Link," he said firmly.

"Link."

"Sheik." He gave a smile of his own. "Will I see you again?"

"Maybe," I replied neutrally, stepping back toward the shelter of the trees. "But not before you help your friend. Go. She needs you."

I disappeared when Link looked toward the temple, or so he would think. From the cover of the trees I watched him enter the temple with his fairy close behind him, shoulders squared, sword in his hand. So he was a warrior after all. A hero.

"Good luck, Link," I whispered.

* * *

To be continued.


	6. Chapter 6

_AN:_ This one's a day late, sorry about that. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 6

I lingered outside the temple for some time, before at last accepting there was nothing more for me to do here at the moment. I would have liked to wait for Link, to make sure he was all right, I suppose, but who knew how long it would be until he emerged? _If he ever emerges,_ a treacherous voice in my mind whispered. _Don't be ridiculous,_ I argued with myself. _He'll be fine._

I leapt down from my tree and left the meadow, bypassing the Moblins with relative ease, and made my way back through the forest the same way I'd come. Before long the vast plains of Hyrule Field were stretched out before me, and I realized I wasn't sure where to go next.

Unexpectedly, my lady's voice sounded in my mind. _What did you make of him?_

She meant Link, of course. _He'll do well enough, I suppose, _I said cynically. _If he keeps his eyes open._

I felt something disconcertingly close to a smile from my lady. _I believe you like him, Sheikah._

_Don't be ridiculous. He's sloppy and has his head in the clouds._

_You seemed to be getting along with him rather well._

_I was merely being cooperative. I'd have nothing to do with him if you hadn't asked me to help him._

_Oh, well,_ my lady sighed. _I just thought maybe he could use a friend._

_He could use eyes in the back of his head._

_You could use a friend too, for that matter._

I had nothing to say to that. Sheikah aren't sentimental. I had no use for any sort of relationship with anyone other than my lady, unless it was to my advantage. Such things only got in the way.

_I wish that you and I could be friends,_ she said after a moment or two.

_You shouldn't say things like that, my lady._

_Why not?_

How could I explain? The warmth of her, her kindness, her good nature…everything about her. I wanted it. I wanted _her,_ in ways that no sentient creature should ever want another.

_I'm not afraid of you, Sheik,_ she told me.

_You should be._

_Well, I'm not,_ she said defiantly. _I don't believe you'll ever hurt me. You're a good person._

There was nothing to say to that, either. She was wrong, my lady. If she didn't know it now, she would someday.

_You should go back to sleep._

_What are you going to do?_

_Search for another sage, I suppose,_ I said. _Make sure Link finds his way when he's finished in the Forest Temple._

_You should look to the sky,_ my lady advised. I could sense her preparing to return to her sleep, like a bear readying itself for a winter's hibernation. _You know the lore about the weather. Look for the sky at its angriest. That's where you'll find the sages._

Her presence faded from her mind as she sank into sleep.

My lady is clever, even if she chooses to believe I'm harmless to her. I took her advice, scanning the sky for any strange occurrences. Hyrule was covered everywhere with hazy gray clouds, but my eye was caught by the strange, almost reddish ring of clouds that circled Death Mountain's peak.

It was not the first time I'd noticed this. Death Mountain is visible from anywhere in Hyrule Field, and no one who had been to Kakariko, which lay at its base, could possibly miss the ominous clouds that circled it. I'd never paid the mountain much thought before now—there was strange weather and cloud formations everywhere—but now that I thought of it, perhaps it was the ideal place to begin looking for the next sage.

Death Mountain is an active volcano, as you know. The last eruption, over a hundred years ago, wiped out the first Kakariko completely and nearly erased the Sheikah from the face of Hyrule. All that was left was that which was hidden beneath the surface—the catacombs, the graves, the temple. A very few Sheikah.

I had the distinct notion that the vicinity of a volcano would be a setting more than appropriate for the fire temple. Even if I didn't know where the sage of fire could be, locating the temple was good enough. Find the temple, find the sage.

* * *

I saw my lady in my dreams that night. She was two years older now than when I had first met her, though she still seemed so young to me. In my dream she was a little girl, no more than seven or eight years old—not solemn, but laughing, not wise, but innocent and carefree, her hair not yet veiled. She ran laughing in a courtyard in the bright sun, under the watchful eye of a stern and dignified man I could only assume was her father, the king. But he smiled as he watched my lady, and as she ran past he caught her up, shrieking and giggling, to give her a whiskered kiss.

I opened my eyes and stared up at the hot red haze of clouds high above me. A memory of my lady's, some scene from her childhood. I had dreamed such memories before; my lady was the subject of my dreams far more often than myself, because I after all had no memories, no past to draw on.

"I am nothing," I said aloud. "I'm a blank, an empty well. A shadow. Sheikah."

I got up and looked up at the enormous shadow of Death Mountain. I was halfway up the mountain path from Kakariko Village, and had simply found a niche between a pair of fallen boulders to sleep in that night, out of view. My body—my lady's body—complained as I got to my feet and stretched; it would be some time before I could demand any of my usual acrobatics from it. In the meantime I'd simply ascend the mountain on foot. I ate from my small supply of food until my body's hunger was sated, then set off.

As the sun slowly rose over the mountaintops, I promised myself that I would compose a song like the Minuet of Forest as soon as one came to me. This treacherous climb was one I had no enthusiasm about making more than once. The mountain trail was steep and high, with spots that were no wider than the width of my foot. Not that such perils were too difficult for a Sheikah to bypass, but with loose dirt and rocks everywhere on the path, I had to carefully watch where I climbed every step of the way.

Worse, the higher I climbed the hotter the air became. Not unexpected for a volcano, of course, but not easy for my lady's body to withstand. To shield myself, I pulled the shadow around me like a cloak, but even that only did so much.

I saw no sign of life on Death Mountain—at least, not until I climbed over a boulder to avoid a narrow stretch of path and realized that it was breathing. I froze on top of it, not a single muscle twitching. With my slight weight and all my Sheikah arts in use, I may well not have been there at all, or so I hoped. It was a Goron, of course, one of the hard-hided demons that lived deep within Death Mountain. _Stupid,_ I cursed myself. If this had been one of Ganondorf's creatures, I might well be dead.

This one's hide rose and fell in steady, even intervals beneath me. It was still fast asleep. Very slowly, very carefully, I slid down until my feet touched solid ground. The Goron simply sighed in its sleep and began to snore. It was still snoring as I crept away up the path.

It wasn't long before I came to the foot of a sheer cliff. The path appeared to end here completely. I scowled up at it. No rest for the weary, as they say. It didn't matter. I could climb this and worse.

No, it wasn't so much the climb as the heat and dryness in the air as I ascended, clinging to tiny cracks in the rock as I pulled myself up or searched for purchase for my feet. The heat seemed to increase at a dramatic rate, until my skin was damp with sweat and I found myself thinking almost longingly of the shadow, where at least everything was dark and cool. I pulled as much of it around myself as I dared, but it made little difference. The very air I breathed felt hot in my lungs.

When at last I pulled myself over the lip of the cliff, the world spun dizzily around me. It seemed the climb had used more of my strength then I thought.

"Never mind," I said aloud as I staggered to my feet, waiting for the mountain beneath me to stop pitching and rolling like the deck of a ship. I could hear the bubbling of liquid somewhere near me but could barely see for the white steam that filled the air. The heat was so immense that the air itself shimmered.

I took two steps forward, then stopped as the ground beneath me pitched violently. I was aware of my knees striking the rock and blackness that had nothing to do with shadow closing in at the edges of my vision, then I knew no more.

* * *

"Is he alive?"

"He's breathing, isn't he?"

"He looks awfully limp."

"Clear out, you rockheads. Give him some space."

Voices. Low, deep, rough. Nervous and hushed or loud and impatient. The air was cool and smelled like the earth. I opened my eyes.

The faces that filled my vision drew back, startled. I stared up at round black eyes set in round faces, with leathery skin that seemed almost hard, gold-brown like the clay dug from deep inside Death Mountain.

Gorons, I realized a bit nervously. I was lying on a slab of stone in a torch-lit room that seemed to be carved into rock, in the company of three of these massive creatures. Two of them hung back in a corner of the room, looking at me curiously. The third stared down at me with sharp, intelligent eyes set in a lined and scowling face. He was far bigger than his two companions and seemed like a mountain to me, broad-shouldered and round-bellied with arms as thick as tree trunks. A mane grew wild around his face.

He crossed his arms over a broad slab of a chest and said in a loud, booming voice, "When are you scrawny, numb-skulled soft-hides gonna learn that Death Mountain's more'n a damned candle flame?"

I was humbled enough by my own folly in climbing the mountain not to take offense. "Thank you for saving my life."

The Goron's scowl deepened. "You better be grateful. Five more minutes out there and you'd've been dead."

It seemed clear enough to me that this giant, fierce though he was, did not intend to hurt me. "May I ask the name of the one to whom I owe my life?"

He eyed me suspiciously as I slowly sat up, propping myself on arms that felt as weak as straws. "Darunia. I'm the boss of this place. Who are _you?_"

"My name is Sheik."

"Not one of Ganondorf's, are you?" he demanded sharply.

I was not about to tell the whole truth to a creature who looked as though he could crush solid rock between his massive palms. "I work for Impa, handmaiden to the Royal Family."

"I know Impa," Darunia said, then abruptly he broke into a wide smile. "If you're one of hers you must be all right." He gave me a hearty slap on the back that knocked the wind out of me.

I winced slightly. "Thank you."

"Think you can stand?"

I swung my legs over the edge of the slab of rock and carefully tested my weight on my feet. "I believe so."

"Good." Even when I was standing, Darunia towered over me; I had to crane my neck just to look at his face. "Tell you what, Sheikah. Since you seem to have learned your lesson, I'll give you a little something that'll help you out in future mountain-climbing excursions." The Goron gave a booming clap of laughter.

I was puzzled by his abrupt and rapid change in mood. "That's not really necessary. I already owe you a great debt as it is."

Darunia waved a massive hand. "I don't need repayment."

"I don't take charity," I countered.

He scowled down at me, though I thought I saw a glimmer of mirth in his eyes. "So serious! What business does a boy like you have acting like he carries the world on his shoulders?"

I blinked and said a little defensively, "I don't act that way."

"Aw, you kids are all the same," he said dismissively, waving a hand again. "Riskin' your necks like it don't matter—cheer up! Life's a good thing, even when it's bad. Smile and maybe some good luck will come your way. If you know how." He guffawed loudly again. "Now come on."

He left the room, and I followed, thoroughly bewildered, leaving the other two Gorons behind.

Outside I could see that we were an underground city—this must be where the Gorons dwelled, in the heart of Death Mountain. Though the air was cool and dry, the stone we crossed was warm, undoubtedly from the reach of the volcano. We were on the bottommost level out of four or five, but Darunia led me up two sets of stairs and through a few wide corridors until we reached a room filled with bags and boxes, all of them dusty and disused—a storeroom.

Darunia set to shifting through burlap bags on the floor, muttering to himself and tossing them aside. I waited as patiently as I was able, thinking hard. How and where was I to find the fire temple now?

"Here it is!" Darunia boomed, straightening and tossing a red heap of fabric at me. I caught it, startled.

"What is this?"

"I call it a fire tunic," Darunia explained as I unfolded the cloth. "Got a special enchantment on it. Protects its wearer from heat. You could walk right into the volcano's crater and live, wearing that." He grinned broadly. "For a little while, at least."

I looked at the tunic. It seemed simple enough, something that any average man might wear, but if what Darunia said was true, it was special indeed. "You're giving this to me?"

"Sure." Darunia shrugged. "Make good use of it next time you decide to go mountain-climbing."

I couldn't understand why he would simply give away something so precious, especially to someone like me. Opening my mouth to ask, I was silenced by a sudden, ominous rumbling of the floor beneath us.

Darunia frowned, looking around as the trembling continued. "An earthquake?"

I couldn't answer. I was seized by a sudden sickness, as though I were about to vomit; I felt cold and clammy, my head disconcertingly light. The trembling of the earth beneath and around us was growing with every passing second; I could feel the weight of tons of dirt and rock pressing down on me, suffocating me, like shadow.

Darunia crossed the room in two great strides and grasped my arm to keep me on my feet, looking quite steady himself, though the floor was beginning to shake and roll so hard that loose dirt was crumbling away from the ceiling. He half-led, half-hauled me out of the room into the main cavern of the Goron city, where some Gorons huddled together with their arms over their heads and others ran back and forth in a panic.

Darunia's chest swelled. "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" he bellowed in a voice so loud that it silenced every Goron in the cavern, though the earth continued to moan and tremble alarmingly.

Then a new voice echoed through the cavern. "Big brooother! Big broooooother!"

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!"

"SON!" Darunia grabbed me and vaulted over the edge of the walkway in the main cavern, falling two stories to slam feet-first into the ground below. I had jumped greater distances before, but the impact still jolted me head to toe; Darunia, on the other hand, seemed quite unconcerned.

Two Gorons charged toward us, dodging debris shaken loose from the ceiling and teetering unsteadily on the rolling ground. One was averaged-sized, but the other was quite small compared to other Gorons, as though a child. The small one flung himself at Darunia, who wrapped one arm around his shoulders, the other still holding me up, keeping me on my feet.

"What's wrong, boy?" Darunia demanded of the small Goron, and I realized that this must be his son. The little Goron's shoulders were shaking, and his older companion looked at us with wide-eyed fear.

"It's him, big brother," the older Goron said, making the sign of the Triforce on his chest. "Inside the temple. The dragon is free!"

Darunia cursed spectacularly and whirled around, but I grasped his arm and put all my weight into holding him in place. "Wait! Tell me where the temple is. I may be able to—"

Darunia grabbed me by the front of my tunic and lifted me clear off my feet. "What do you know, Sheikah?! Are you working for Ganondorf? Did you lead him here?!"

"No," I said as calmly as I could manage when suspended two feet from the floor by an angry Goron. "I've come here to lead the Hero of Time—Link."

Darunia looked at me for a long moment, then slowly lowered me to the ground. "I know Link. He's my oath-brother. What's this Hero of Time business?"

"He's been chosen by the goddesses to save Hyrule," I explained. "But he cannot destroy Ganondorf without the help of the sages, and to find them he must find the temples."

"There won't _be_ a sage of fire if the temple isn't saved," Darunia growled. "Yes, I know where it is, Sheikah. It's connected to our city by a secret passage in my room. I can't wait for Link—I've got to go and fight the dragon now, before it can get out, or it'll destroy us all. You wanna direct him, by all means. I could use the help."

He turned again, but this time it was his son who grasped his arm. "I want to go with you, Dad!"

"No," Darunia said sharply. "Stay here. Guard the city."

"I'll look after him," the older Goron promised.

"But Dad—"

"No," Darunia cut him off. "No, no, and also? _No._" He looked at me with a fierce gleam in his round black eyes. "Get Link, Sheikah." He offered a massive hand.

I took it, and winced slightly as his firm grip nearly crushed my hand. "I'll bring him here as soon as I'm able," I promised, and left.

* * *

To be continued.


	7. Chapter 7

_AN:_ I really dropped the ball on updates this week, didn't I? Sorry about that. It's been a busy/stressful time. Updating on Monday and Thursday just slipped right out of mind. I'll try to remember next week.

* * *

Chapter 7

Out of the Goron city, I swung over the edge of the cliff and dropped straight down, arresting my fall several times with precarious handholds on the cliff wall, until I landed on a ledge that overlooked the mountain path. Here I could see everything for half a mile, but it would be difficult for anyone to see me. I had no wish to be caught by the Black King or any of his subjects here. It could be disastrous, for myself and my lady.

As I waited, nervously tapping my fingers on the stone beneath me, I tried to think of a song. I knew that Link was coming—my intuition spoke loud and clear. In the meantime, I wanted to create a song like the minuet, something I could put the power of the fire temple into, but I had no ideas, no notes appearing mysteriously in my mind. Instead my thoughts were filled with the strange events of the last two days.

Saria, Darunia, Link. They were astounding people. People I _wanted_ to help, _wanted_ to protect. I wanted to preserve their futures, if only because I couldn't preserve my own. And yet this went against every truth I knew as a Sheikah. Since the beginning of time I had known that no single life other than my master's or mistress's was of any consequence to me. They were all like fish swimming through the current of time—there one day, gone the next, but the river went on without them.

These fish, even my lady, for all their grand important roles in the fate of Hyrule, would be gone soon enough too, and the river unchanged. Yet they _had_ lives that could be saved; they _had_ futures that could be preserved. And I? There was no future for me. There was nothing.

Goddesses help me, I was actually envious.

The instant I realized this I felt a surge of anger so hot it startled me. Why _should_ they have what I did not? Why should anyone? Why were Sheikah the cursed race, the subservient race, the race bound to shadow? _Someone has to be,_ pointed out the reasonable part of my mind, but I angrily dismissed this. It didn't have to be me.

I knew the story, of course. The Sheikah had not always been cursed. We had once served the royal family of Hyrule, long ago, but the Sheikah betrayed them. Impa alone remained loyal, continuing to protect the daughters of the royal household through the centuries. But for our transgression, the goddesses cursed our race, binding us forever to shadow.

I knew all this. But why should it have anything to do with me? I didn't ask for it. I didn't want it.

But what I wanted didn't matter to anyone or anything. I _am _Sheikah. There is no changing that.

I was so agitated that I didn't notice at first that I was not simply tapping arbitrarily on the ground. There was a rhythm to it. Surprised, I stopped and thought. Could I remember that rhythm? Yes, I had it in my mind, under the anger and bitterness—it was there.

Out of it, an entire song simply seemed to fall into place. I grabbed the lyre out of the shadow and played quickly, blindly, before I could lose the music in my mind. I hadn't seen the fire temple; that was true. But there was a memory very prominent as I played—red haze and impossible heat, a heart that pulsed with liquid fire, an inferno in the hollow of the cool mountain. It could kill, it could level entire villages. There was nothing that could survive that fire.

I let the memory of it flow through me into the song, into the last lingering note. I waited for it to fade with closed eyes, and then sighed. I had done it. Another song created.

What did they call that rhythm? Bolero: that was it.

"Hey, that was a nice song. Is that for me too?"

My eyes shot open. I glanced down. Link stood beneath my ledge on the mountain path, his fairy hovering beside his head, shielding his eyes as he looked up at me. I couldn't believe my carelessness. I had been so caught up in the song that I didn't even realize he was there.

"What makes you assume that?" I said grouchily.

"What's got you in a mood?" Link asked, looking pained. "I didn't think I'd see you again for a while. Aren't you happy to see me?"

As a matter of fact, I was. The truth was that I had worried about him in the forest temple, though I refused to admit it to myself. "How did it go in the temple?" I asked, sidestepping the question.

All at once Link's expression seemed to close. "Fine, I suppose. I'm still alive."

I looked at him for a moment. He had seen something hard in that temple. I could see it in his eyes.

"It's Saria, isn't it?"

He looked up at me, quickly and perhaps angrily. "What do you know about Saria?"

"I know that she is a friend to you."

"Maybe she was."

"She isn't still?"

"I don't know," Link admitted, and sighed, the anger draining out of him. "She had to leave. She went to that place—the chamber of the sages. Where Rauru is."

I filed that name away in my mind to ask Impa about later. "She is a sage. She moved on to the Sacred Realm. That doesn't mean she's no longer your friend."

"I didn't think she'd have to go."

"I'm sure she would have stayed if she could."

Link glanced up at me again, and a faint smile appeared on his face. "It's funny—I have no idea who you are, but that's twice now you've managed to make me feel better."

"I'm not your friend," I warned him grumpily, and he laughed.

"Sorry, I forgot. You're my guide, right?"

"Precisely." I tossed the fire tunic over my ledge, and Link caught it. "That's for you."

He unfolded it and looked it over, frowning. "What is it?"

"It's a fire tunic," I explained. "It will allow you to venture into the depths of Death Mountain's crater, where no man has gone, and survive. For a little while."

Link quirked an eyebrow as he looked up at me again. "Why exactly would I want to venture into the depths of Death Mountain's crater?"

"Your oath-brother Darunia is in there."

"What?" he demanded, startled. "Why?"

"Ganondorf came to the mountaintop." I saw Link's fingers twitch slightly at the mention of his mortal foe's name. "He's unleashed a dragon into the crater, where the fire temple is hidden. Darunia went in there to stop it."

"The fire temple…" Link's eyes widened. "Sheik, does that mean—Darunia? Is he a sage?"

I bowed my head. "It seems a likely possibility."

Link quieted all at once, and I glanced down at him. "I suppose he'll go on too, then—to wherever Saria went."

I jumped down from my perch, landing with a thump on the path in front of him. "Link, you are gifted. You have strong friendships with people who are willing to sacrifice their livelihoods to help you and all Hyrule. But I suppose that's your curse as well." My eyes lowered; I didn't want to meet his gaze. "Even if everyone you know and care for is gone, you are still the Hero of Time."

"And you're still my guide?"

I looked up, startled. I knew the answer to that, of course. I knew what I should say. There was no future for a Sheikah. There was nothing.

"Yes."

His faint smile made me avert my eyes again; I summoned the lyre to me. "Now listen to the Bolero of Fire, if you want to help your friend."

I played the song for him as Link gravely listened, and when I was finished he repeated it on his ocarina. "Go now, and be careful," I said. "In the Goron City, in Darunia's room—that's where the door to the temple is hidden."

When he was gone, I took my perch on the ledge again, strumming the lyre idly. Another temple, another sage, and five more to find—four, if this person Rauru was one. I knew that I should go on ahead and search for the next sage. I also knew that I wasn't going to move from this mountain until I saw Link emerge from the Fire Temple. I couldn't forget the immense heat of that place, and I couldn't leave without seeing him safe.

What had possessed me? Why hadn't I told him the truth, that my days were numbered, that I too would be gone before he knew it? _Fool, _I thought, disgusted with myself. _Does this make it easier for him to bear? That he now thinks you'll still be here when his quest is over? Does this make it easier for you?_

Maybe it did. I wasn't sure. I only knew that I wished it were true.

I laughed at myself, bitterly and hollowly. I was such a pathetic creature. Forgetting every Sheikah virtue I'd ever known, clinging to false hopes, as much of a danger to my lady as Ganondorf was. And always, always I could feel the shadow near, waiting for the day I returned to it, waiting to swallow me whole.

I went to sleep, only so I could forget it for a little while. But it was there even in my dreams—that lonely horror, that desolation.

Six hours and seventeen minutes later, I awoke. Six hours and thirty-two minutes later, Link emerged from the fire temple. After my restless sleep, I had positioned myself on a vantage point as close to the crater as I dared, where I could wait and watch for him.

He emerged slow and staggering, his soot-streaked shield nearly dragging on the ground, an immense weariness in his face and body. He wore the fire tunic, and his fairy fluttered anxiously around his head. I waited until he was well out of the blazing crater before I dropped down from my perch, revealing myself.

He drew up short and looked at me with tired eyes. "You waited."

"I was concerned," I admitted, and Link smiled, weary though it was.

"Piece of cake." He dropped down onto a boulder with a slight grimace. "Or pie. A nice, big, flaky pie. Not hot. I think I've had enough of ovens for a while."

I noticed he winced as he moved his left hand. The whole back of the gauntlet looked as though it had been burned off, blackened around the edges. I could see reddened and raw flesh beneath.

"Like fishing in Lake Hylia," he went on, still talking. "Nice and cool. I'm pretty good at it now, you know. Caught a huge one back when—what are you doing?"

I had grasped his hand to examine the burn on the back of it. Covering the charred remains of his gauntlet with my own hand, I let the shadow flow through my fingers to cover and sink into his flesh. It would at least cool the burn until it could heal.

Link stared at his hand when I let go of him and stepped back. There would be no sign of the shadow visible to normal eyes, and it would dispel once the healing took root—I hoped. "How did you do that? It feels much better—are you a healer?"

"Hardly. I just dulled the pain some, that's all."

Link gazed up at me for a moment, his eyes disturbingly perceptive. "Thank you."

I waved off his gratitude. "How did it go in the temple?"

"The dragon's gone," he said with a sigh. "So is Darunia."

"Then another sage is safe. You've done good work, Link."

"I suppose." He stood and stretched with a groan, then looked at me again. "Why do you wear a mask, Sheik?"

I was surprised by the question. The truth was that there was no real reason to it. With my eyes red I looked different enough from my lady, even in her body—I suppose it was just an extra precaution.

"Is there someone you're hiding from?" Link went on seriously. "You know I'll help you if you're in trouble, right? Any way I can."

I almost smiled. The offer was kind. He truly believed he could help me. I could see it in his eyes.

"Never mind me. You should worry about yourself. I'm not the one whose blood Ganondorf is after."

Link waved a hand, dismissing something as trivial as the Black King's bloodlust. "I mean it," he threatened, scowling at me. "If there's anything I can do for you, you'd better let me know."

I did smile then, a bit sadly. "I will." More lies, of course. More that I would tell him to reassure him, only so I didn't have to see him disillusioned.

They say we never anticipate the consequences of our actions. That we learn only by mistake. That only after the webs we spin are torn to shreds, exposing our flaws and weaknesses, do we see how stupid it is to hope, to dream.

We are fools, all of us, and I the greatest.

* * *

To be continued.


	8. Chapter 8

_AN:_ Getting back on track with my Monday-Thursday updates. Look for new chapters on those days…and thanks for your reviews!

* * *

Chapter 8

The time was drawing near when I was expected to report to the Black King in his citadel in the north. I knew it was foolish to delay. I could not risk incurring the Black King's suspicion. And I could use the meeting to my advantage, to feed him false information and throw him off Link's trail.

But the truth was that I was afraid—afraid that he would spot the lies, afraid that he would know that I was aiding Link, not him. It was foolishness, of course. Sheikah are nothing if not the best of liars. But most of all, I was afraid—no, terrified—to be in the presence of the Black King.

I decided to delay the meeting a bit. Not long enough to make Ganondorf suspicious, of course. Long enough to find and guide Link to the next temple, perhaps. Long enough to forget this absurd fear. What did I, a Sheikah, have to fear in the world of mortal men? There is no horror greater than that of the shadow. Not one.

I left Death Mountain alone by way of the mountain trail and made me way back down to Kakariko Village. It was late night when I arrived, and my lady's body was entirely worn out. I slipped inside Impa's house, which was deserted this time, and immediately fell into a deep sleep on the dusty floor.

When I woke, the sun was shining through the cracks between boards in the walls, and Impa stood over me, hands on her hips. "Tough times?" she drawled.

I sat up, rubbing sleep from my eyes. "My lady's body tires easily."

"Uh-huh." Impa gazed down at me for a moment in silence. "So, how are things going?"

"Link has freed two sages from their mortal bonds," I said, feeling a faint pride in my charge's accomplishments. "They've moved on to the Sacred Realm."

Impa's eyes lit. "Are you serious?"

"Entirely."

"So that makes three, including Rauru," she said gleefully, confirming my suspicions. "I _knew _that boy could do it! I had my doubts when I first met him, I admit, but after he managed to get all the spiritual stones…"

"He seems capable enough," I said neutrally, climbing to my feet. "If not the most attentive of warriors."

Impa gave me a calculating glance. "So I take it to mean that you've spoken with him?"

"Yes. I guided him to the temples."

"I see." The gleam in Impa's eyes as she looked at me was disconcerting. "How is Zelda doing?"

"Well enough. She sleeps."

"Good."

Silence fell between us. Impa stared into the darkness before her, as though her thoughts were far away. I didn't want to interrupt her musings, and yet…

"Impa?"

She blinked and looked at me. "Yes?"

I hesitated, framing my words carefully in my mind. What I was about to say was tantamount to blasphemy for a Sheikah, but I needed an answer.

"Why are Sheikah still cursed? Why must we remain bound to shadow so many years after our betrayal?"

I could tell that my question had caught her off guard. Impa stared at me for a long moment, and then at last she shook her head, something close to open wonder in her face.

"You're amazing, Sheik. Not even two years old and you've already started to ask those questions…you move quickly, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" I said, surprised.

"It happens to most Sheikah, if not all of them," Impa explained. "Sooner or later we all start to question what we've known since the beginning of time—our roles, our purposes, our fates. I suppose that's because we _are_ the cursed race…rare is the Sheikah who can live his or her life without rejecting or rebelling against those beliefs at least once."

I don't think I can make you understand what an enormous impact Impa's words had on me. What I am was something I _knew_ since before I was born. To question it was terrible. To be told that _all_ of us questioned it was devastating.

"That's not possible."

"Why not?" she asked reasonably. "Aren't you rejecting those beliefs right now? Aren't you rebelling against your role in life?"

"But it's wrong," I said vehemently. "I'm Sheikah. I don't question."

"Every Sheikah questions," Impa said quietly. "Every Sheikah hates his lot."

"Don't say that!" I cried, unable to keep calm a moment longer. "It's wrong, it's _blasphemy!_ You can't just deny the truth!"

Impa fixed me with her direct gaze and said softly, "What truth?"

I felt shattered. From long before my birth I had known what it meant to be Sheikah. Nothing about it had ever made me happy, but it was something to cling to. Now I had nothing.

I wasn't ready for that.

I fled the house and village and most of all Impa, long and fast, away from the incessant questions, the uncertainty. I didn't stop running until I found myself in the middle of Hyrule Field. Severely shaken, I sat down in the grass, holding my head in my hands.

What did this all mean? Was there really no truth to being Sheikah? Was everything I had known since the dawn of my existence a lie? Did that mean that there was no reason in my life? Did that mean…there was no reason for Sheikah…

_I can't. I'm not ready. I can't face that question!_

Mercifully, a sound reached my ears that made me look up quickly, almost forgetting my distress. I heard the tramping of feet and felt the vibrations in the earth beneath me; it sounded like a small army on the move. I glanced around quickly for shelter and spotted one of the sparse trees that dotted Hyrule Field. Swiftly I shimmied up its trunk and climbed into the highest branches, where I could find a better view.

Now I saw them—a squad of about twenty or so figures tramping across the field in a roughly southwest direction, heading for a distance structure I could just barely make out atop a low hill across the field. I sharpened my vision and saw Gerudo women mixed with six or seven Moblin; Ganondorf's soldiers, no doubt about it.

Even with my eyes sharpened as much as possible, I could make out no more than a tall wall surrounding the distant structure and a wooden gate, facing northeast. I had seen it before, of course, but had never been inside. Could it possibly be a temple?

It was worth a look, in any case. I dropped from my perch, landing quietly in the soft soil, and followed the squad at a careful distance. It was slow going, especially for me; I had to move at half the speed of the squad to stay safely far back. There was no shelter for me in the middle of the field; I could only hope that no one in the squad looked behind them, though of course I pulled the shadow around me in disguise. If anyone did happen to glance back, they would see only an indistinguishable figure.

At last the squad reached the gate; a Moblin thumped its fist against the wood as a Gerudo shouted for the occupants to admit them entry. The gate swung open a few minutes later, and the squad tramped inside.

I did not enter by way of the gate, but climbed the tall walls with relative ease. Now I could see the entire layout within the walls—a large field surrounded by a wrought iron fence, a house, a barn…

_A horse ranch,_ I thought, disgusted. _Not a temple, nothing of any conceivable importance. A horse ranch._ Still, some shred of curiosity remained. What interest would the Black King have in a ranch?

A man had come to meet the squad on the strip of grass between the house and the barn—a groveling, scraping, little nothing of a man, with wiry dark hair that grew in scraggly clumps here and there on his mostly-bald head and mean yellow eyes. He bowed repeatedly from the waist, speaking quickly to the woman who seemed to be leading the squad. I sharpened my hearing.

"—warn't ready for your visit, or I'da made sure things looked better 'round here, of course—"

"I'm not interested in how many dung piles you've cleaned up," the Gerudo snapped. "Is the animal ready?"

The man nodded fervently. "Take the horse now if you want, with my blessin'."

"We aren't returning to the north. We came only to warn you that another squad will be along in two days, and they will take charge of the animal. Have it ready to leave."

"Of course, of course," the man replied quickly, bowing several times. Then he stilled, hesitating. "Will—will the king himself be comin'?"

"I don't know," the Gerudo said cruelly. "It's a possibility."

With my keen ears I could hear the man swallow as he bowed again. "Of—of course."

He handed over what looked to be a bag of rupees—some sort of tithe, I imagine—to the Gerudo woman, who barked an order at the rest of her squad. They turned and left, leaving the little man motionless in the grass.

He stood still for quite some time, then at last shook his head and turned toward the barn. "Malon!" he snarled in a voice quite unlike that which he'd used with the Gerudo. "Get out here now, you good-for-nothin' milker!"

A young woman in a peasant's gown, her hair vividly red, stalked out from the barn. "What?"

"Don't you take that tone with me," the man snapped. "Where was you when I was greetin' our guests?"

Malon placed her hands on her hips. Her voice, when she replied, was seething with anger. "I don't _greet_ no monsters of Ganondorf's, Ingo!"

Ingo snatched a handful of her hair, yanking her down until their faces were level. "You listen to me, girl," he hissed in her face. "You best learn sooner rather'n later who your master is. I answer to the king an' his guards an' you answer to _me,_ so the next time a group like that marches through the gate you best fall on your knees an' kiss their feet!"

"And if I don't?" the woman snapped back.

"Then your father'll pay the price, an' don't you dare forget it!" Ingo released her and Malon straightened, rubbing her scalp. "Now get your behind in that barn and clean it top to bottom! They'll be back in two days for the horse an' I want this ranch spotless!"

Malon drew in her breath. "If you think for one second I'm lettin' you sell Epona to the likes of—"

Ingo struck her viciously, cutting her off. "Who asked you, you brainless milksop? Now get in there—that barn better be sparklin' by morning or that lump you call a father gets it!"

For a moment Malon's fists clenched, as though she were about to hit Ingo right back, but then she turned and marched back to the barn, her chin high and back stiff as a board. Thoroughly intrigued now, I waited until Ingo disappeared into the house and jumped the short distance from the wall to the roof of the barn. As I'd anticipated, there was a small trap door in the roof, most likely over the hay loft. I slid inside, perching on the rafters to watch Malon below.

"Rat-faced, pasty-assed, dung eatin' bastard," she growled, stabbing a pitchfork savagely into a pile of hay. "Traitorous addle-brained pile of cow shit—"

She went on in this vein for quite a while. I must admit, her language was impressive.

Her litany was at last interrupted when a strawberry-colored, white-maned horse leaned its head over the gate of its stall to nudge Malon. Startled, the woman turned quickly, then relaxed as she saw the animal.

"Don't worry, girl," she murmured soothingly, her face softening as she rubbed the mare's forehead. "That bastard Ganondorf ain't gettin' his hands on you, not whilst I have breath in my body."

"I wouldn't advise throwing your life away over a horse," I remarked. "Most assuredly, the Black King _will_ kill you."

Malon gasped and whirled, pitchfork in hand. "Who's there?" she barked, searching the corners of the barn. "Who said that?!"

"You're looking in the wrong direction."

She hesitated, and then looked up. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open.

"What the—who in Din's name are _you?"_

I dropped from my perch, landing with a thump on the floor below; Malon instantly leveled her pitchfork at me. I eyed it, unfazed. "My name is Sheik."

She was looking at my tunic, at the eye of truth embroidered on it in scarlet. Her eyes widened, and she took a step back, then another. "Sheikah!"

I looked at her. She was no sage, I was certain about that, but a normal Hylian, undoubtedly with most Hylians' fears and prejudices about my kind. "I won't harm you."

She swallowed hard, but slowly lowered the pitchfork, a gesture I appreciated. "What—what can I do for you?"

"Nothing. I followed Ganondorf's soldiers here because I wanted to know what they were doing." I spread my hands, a gesture of peace, and, perhaps, apology. "Unwelcome as my opinion may be, I think you should heed it. The Black King is not merciful. Better to give up the animal."

Malon jammed the sharp edges of her pitchfork into the floor, eyes blazing with defiance. "I won't do that. Epona's special. She ain't for the likes of him. She's _supposed_ to be Link's." I blinked at her, surprised, and she averted her eyes. "Only I don't know where he is," she muttered.

"You know Link?"

She looked at me quickly. "'Course. Do you?"

I hesitated. "Yes, I know him. I've been helping him."

Malon's eyes lit up. "Then you know where he is? I've been waitin' for him to come back for—oh, years. Never got any word, nothin'. S'like he disappeared off the face of the earth."

"He's been busy," I said vaguely. "And forgive me for saying so, but I wouldn't risk Link's life for a horse either."

Malon shook her head emphatically. "You don't understand. I had a dream, see."

"A dream is no indication—"

"I saw Farore," she interrupted vehemently, and in spite of myself, my curiosity was piqued.

"Did you really?" It was said that the goddesses occasionally appeared in dreams to deliver messages or set tasks, but it was only a rumor, of course. I could not imagine what it would be like to speak with a goddess face-to-face, even in a dream. It seemed both an honor and a terror beyond my comprehension.

"Yes…" Malon closed her eyes. "She was like—all light, golden and so beautiful…she told me that I could help Link, and I knew how." Her eyes opened. "I knew what she meant. Link's supposed to have Epona. One way or another, this lady's important." She stroked the horse's mane and bit her lip. "What'm I gonna do if Ganondorf's soldiers come before Link? I can't fight 'em off on my own, and Ingo's got my dad…"

I sighed, unable to believe what I was about to do. "I can summon him here."

Malon looked at me quickly, her eyes lighting with hope. "Really? You'd do that?"

I shook my head. "I still believe it's a near-unacceptable risk."

"Then why?" she wanted to know.

In truth, I wasn't sure. I didn't know if I believed Malon's story—it was only a horse, after all. And if this foolish excursion brought harm to Link…but still. He _was_ the hero. Was it not his task, his duty, to right the wrongs that the Black King influenced across the land? And if that was his charge, then the least I could do was help.

Besides, if what Malon said was true, this girl was a friend to him. He had lost several of them already. A shame that Malon should die fighting for what she believed in.

"I'll summon him," I said. "And I'll stay. If the Black King's subjects arrive before Link, I may be able to do something."

Malon shook her head, looking awed. "I never heard nothin' of you Sheikah that wasn't bad. But you—you're really a decent person, aren't you?"

Inexplicably, I felt rather pleased.

* * *

To be continued.


	9. Chapter 9

_AN:_ Welcome back, thanks for reading.

* * *

Chapter 9

I advised Malon to go back to cleaning the barn, as Ingo had ordered her. "Don't let anything appear as though it's out of the ordinary. Do your work sullenly if that's how you normally behave, but do it as though nothing is planned."

Malon nodded anxiously. "What 'bout you? Where'm I gonna hide you?"

"You needn't worry about me. I can hide myself very thoroughly if I wish." I retreated to the rafters after advising Malon to ignore my presence completely, in case Ingo entered the barn. Perched on one narrow wooden beam, I swallowed, repulsed by the very thought of what I was about to do. Nothing else to it. I clenched shaking hands, took a deep breath, and plunged fully into the shadow.

Dark. Cold. Voices whispering to me, the lesser shadows, promising power, long life, even peace. I had lived with those voices long before I was born; I would not be tempted by them. Thrusting them away, I searched desperately through the dark mire for the thread of shadow I had left with Link when I numbed his burn. If I could get its attention, pull it toward me, it would bring Link with it in the tricky way of shadow, making him think it was his idea to come all along.

It would be quick. It would be easy. If I could just find it and get out before it came…

There!

I found the lesser thread, with its touch of strange, warm energy that was Link, and yanked it sharply. _Return to me. Now!_

Yes. I had its attention. It would come, it promised, it was coming back. My task finished, I turned to flee the shadow world—and found myself firmly mired in place.

Something had wrapped around me while I was distracted. Something was holding me in its grasp, keeping me here in the dark and the cold.

No. No, no, no, no.

_Hello, little one,_ the shadow seemed to say.

_No! Let me go, LET ME GO!_

_Don't be afraid._ It seeped into my mind, horrible and kind, repulsive and seductive all at once. _I know how you suffer. I know how you curse your existence. Come now. Return to me, and all will be well._

_No._ I could feel myself shaking. _Please, let me go._

It only wrapped itself tighter around me, soothing me, promising safety and peace. All false, of course, all lies—I knew this, deep inside, but the shadow transfixed me, hypnotized me. It would draw me into itself until I was trapped forever in its horrible world, and my lady…

_Your lady,_ the shadow echoed my thoughts, and I could feel it reaching deep inside, to the place where she slept.

_No! Leave her be, she's not for you!_

_But she is for you,_ the shadow whispered. _I know how much you desire her. I can feel it. You want her so badly that you ache for her._

It was right. Goddesses help me, it was right. My lady's warmth, her cleverness, her compassion—her body and heart and soul—I wanted it all with a constant, near-excruciating pain.

_Go on. Take her. Eat her. She is yours, little one, she sold her soul to you._

I was so close to doing it, so close to obeying, but my lady—she trusted me, she cared for me. I couldn't hurt her. I didn't want to hurt her. I was the one meant for the shadow, not her. And through me it would consume her, it would trap her here forever.

_Get out. _

I couldn't take it anymore. I wasn't strong enough.

_Get out. Get out. Get out. GET OUT!_

I flung myself out of that horrible place. Pain jolted up my entire right side, shocking me out of my trance. I was back to myself in the physical world, lying on the floor of the barn in Malon's ranch; I'd fallen from the rafters.

"Farore's mercy!" A strong, calloused hand wrapped around my arm and Malon's body supported mine as she pulled me up to my knees. "You all right? What happened?"

Bile rose in my throat at the memory of the shadow. I waved Malon off, staggered out the back door of the barn and fell to my knees in a patch of grass between the barn and the wall surrounding the ranch. Yanking the mask away from my face, I threw up violently into the dirt.

I could feel my entire body shaking when I was done; my skin was clammy and cold with sweat. I retched again, dryly, having nothing left to vomit. Malon's hand gripped my shoulder, and she offered a flask of water when my stomach at last stopped heaving.

I took some to rinse my mouth and spat it into the dirt, then gulped down the rest of the flask without pause. Malon knelt beside me and took it from my grasp when I was done.

"Look't you." She brushed a hand against my forehead. "What happened to you?"

I shrank back from her touch, unable to trust myself. "Nothing. A nightmare."

"A nightmare!" She straightened and placed fists against her hips. "Seems a bit worse'n that if you ask me."

I shook my head. "I can't say more about it."

I could feel her eyes on me for a moment, though I didn't look up. "Seems a fool thing, to keep it all inside," she said at last. "But then, I'm just a poor rancher's girl. What do I know?"

She went back inside. I remained where I was for a time, leaning against the wall of the barn, feeling the twilight air cool on my face.

I didn't want to die. I didn't want to go back there, into the shadow's embrace. How could I escape it? How could my existence be maintained when my task was finished? I had fled it this time, but only for so long. When I died it would have me again, and it would never let me go.

I put my mask back in place and went back into the barn, where I offered Malon the empty flask. "Thank you for the water," I said quietly. "It was kind of you."

Malon took it, gazing at me. "You're welcome."

Silently I helped her finish her work in the barn. Malon curled up on the floor to sleep when we were done, with only a ragged blanket for cover—the most Ingo would allow her, she told me.

I did not sleep. Would not, could not. Not with the shadow so close; not when it could overtake me in dreams.

Malon set about her tasks in the ranch at dawn while I perched on top of the outer wall to keep an eye on all that went on within and without. I watched as Malon led the horses out to the iron-fenced ring (all except Epona, I noted), fed the cuccos, and disappeared into the dairy to look after the cows. Ingo emerged from the house long after the sun had risen and stood glaring at Malon as she did her work, barking orders or insults. I feared Malon might lose her temper, but she simply squared her shoulders and ignored Ingo as though this was the normal course of a day for her. It probably was.

Ingo also forced Malon to cook for him in the afternoon, and retreated inside the house to eat when she was done. When he was gone, Malon summoned me down from the wall by putting two fingers in her mouth and giving an earsplitting whistle. It was the same signal she used to scare cuccos out of her way, she had explained, so Ingo should think nothing of it.

She met me behind the barn and offered a roll and a small wedge of cheese. "I know it's not much, but it's best as Ingo sees fit to spare me," she said, her mouth curling with disgust.

"Then you should eat it," I said, but Malon pushed the food at me.

"Eat! You look all done in."

She glared at me so fiercely that I thought it best to simply obey. "How did you come to work at Ingo's ranch?" I asked between bites.

"It _ain't_ Ingo's ranch," Malon snapped. "This here's Lon Lon Ranch, as in Talon and Malon, my dad n' me. Ingo worked for _us._ But when Ganondorf took over in the north, we heard he'd be sendin' some people to us to collect tribute. When Daddy said he wouldn't pay nothin', Ingo knocked him out n' locked him up n' offered loyalty to the king in exchange for control over the ranch. The Gerudo witches put my dad in an enchanted sleep, and Ingo made me his slave," she added bitterly.

"Ingo won't be the last to swear allegiance to the Black King," I said sympathetically.

Malon spat on the ground. "Ingo was rotten through to the core long before he swore allegiance. I told Daddy time and time again to get rid of him, but Daddy's heart's big. 'I ain't puttin' poor Ingo outta work,' he said. See where that got him!" She snorted and shook her head, then looked toward the barn, her expression turning worried. "Ingo won't even let me take Epona out to stretch her legs. She's been cooped up for days now. I hope Link comes soon."

So did I. "I'd better get back up to the wall," I said. "Thank you for the food."

Malon waved off my gratitude. "'Least I can do."

She set about her work again as I climbed back up the wall, after first checking that Ingo was nowhere in sight. Hoisting myself over the edge of the broad wall, I took a quick cursory glance at Hyrule Field—and saw another squad from the north, roughly the size and content of the first one, marching toward Lon Lon Ranch. I cursed under my breath. They were early.

I jumped from the wall onto the roof of the barn and swung down through the trap door. Malon was inside, feeding Epona an apple that was probably supposed to be her own lunch. She turned quickly as I thumped onto the floor. "They're coming," I said shortly.

Malon's face paled and she dropped the apple. "What do we do?"

I thought fast. "Where is your father kept?"

"In his room in the house."

"Where Ingo spends most of his time."

Malon nodded wordlessly in confirmation.

"Call Ingo out," I ordered. "Make up some excuse and get him out of the house."

"But—"

"Do it." I jumped up the hay loft, the rafters, and out through the trap door onto the roof of the barn.

Perhaps Malon guessed what I meant to do, perhaps not. In any case, she came banging out of the barn moments later, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Ingo! INGO! HEY, YOU PIG-FACED UGLY BASTARD—"

You had to admire her gumption, really.

Ingo came storming out of the house, his face purple with rage. _"What did you call me?"_ he bellowed, striding straight toward Malon.

I leapt through the air over their heads, landed lightly behind Ingo, grabbed my dagger from its sheath and whirled in one swift motion to grab Ingo from behind. Wrenching an arm behind his back, I pressed the blade against his throat. "Don't move," I advised softly.

Ingo stood stock-still, trembling. "Wha—what the hell is this? What have you done, girl?!"

There was a gleam of triumph in Malon's eyes as she folded her arms over her chest. "How's it feel, Ingo?" she taunted. "Not such a big man now, huh?"

"You little _bitch,_" Ingo snapped. "I'll have your gump of a dad flayed alive for—" He cut off as I pressed the dagger harder against his throat.

"Get some rope and a gag," I ordered Malon. "We don't have time for taunts."

I remained with my captive while Malon ran to do as I'd told her. "Look, I dunno who you are, but if you're workin' with Ganondorf, you got the wrong man," Ingo babbled. "I'm not—"

I pressed the dagger into his throat just hard enough to draw a tiny bit of blood. "Quiet," I ordered softly. Ingo gulped and fell silent.

Malon raced back with a coil of rope and a few handkerchiefs. I made sure Ingo remained still as she tied his hands together, then kicked him off his feet. With Malon holding him down by the shoulders, I quickly bound his ankles, ignoring his curses. Malon grimly stuffed a pair of handkerchiefs into his mouth and tied the third around his head to ensure they remained in place.

Ingo stared up at us, his face purple with rage and helplessness, making indistinct noises—threats and insults, by the sound of them—behind the gag. Malon's lip curled; she raised her foot and slammed it down into the dirt a mere inch from Ingo's head.

"Next one lands on your face if you don't behave," she snarled, then looked at me. "Now what?"

"Are there keys to the house?" I inquired.

Malon squatted next to Ingo and ruffled through his pockets until she produced a ring of keys. "Here."

"Lock up the house and then return to the barn. I'll close the gate."

"I hope you have a plan, mister," Malon said dolefully as she trotted off.

"I might," I confided to Ingo with a small smile beneath the mask. Grabbing him by his collar, I dragged him to the barn and hauled him inside, leaving him on the floor, then went to close the heavy gate, not without some effort. Returning to the barn, I found Malon waiting, tapping a foot next to Ingo, who eyed her booted toe nervously.

"How long do we have?"

"Ten or so minutes, I'd say," I replied, sitting on the floor. "They probably saw me close the gate."

"So now what?" Malon demanded. "What's your great plan, if you don't mind my askin'?"

"I'm going to hide us, as best as I can. Have a seat, please." I smiled grimly beneath the mask as Malon slid down onto the floor. "It's going to get very dark around here."

I closed my eyes and reached out to the shadow, ignoring the shudder of sudden terror that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. This was not immersion. I was still here. I would not fall prey to it like this.

I cloaked myself, the barn, the ranch, and everything within the walls in shadow. It spread and thickened to form a veil both dark and murky, like thick fog, nearly impossible to navigate. If Ganondorf's soldiers penetrated the walls, they would have a very difficult job finding us, and I, who could see as clearly in the shadow as in broad daylight…

"Sheik?" Malon said nervously, groping along the floor until she found my arm. "I can't see a thing—that's you, right?"

"Yes." I could make out everything in the barn clearly, but Malon and Ingo were blind. Epona snorted and shifted nervously, clearly afraid of the unnatural darkness.

"So now what do—" Malon cut off abruptly as a scuffling sound came from the door of the barn, her eyes enormous.

I leapt to my feet, yanking my dagger from its sheath. How had one gotten inside? Could it have climbed the walls also?

I lifted the shadow inside the barn enough that Malon could see a bit, positioning myself by the door, dagger in hand. Malon was a clever girl; she knew what I wanted. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped close to the door and took hold of the latch.

I nodded to her, and she threw the door open.

* * *

To be continued.


	10. Chapter 10

_AN:_ Updates liek whoa. Thanks for your reviews.

* * *

Chapter 10

Malon yanked the door open, falling on her rump on the floor. In an instant my dagger was pressed to the intruder's throat.

"I hope that's meant for the small army outside, and not me," a familiar voice said. "I don't think I remember what I did to offend you."

I stepped back and stared. "Link?"

"_Link!"_ Malon jumped to her feet and threw her arms around him. Link lifted her clear off her feet, then set her down again, grinning at her.

"Hi, Malon."

"Is that all?" Malon demanded in an outraged tone, swatting him on the shoulder. "Where've you _been?"_

"Oh, you know. Busy."

"Busy?! _For seven years?"_

Link merely ruffled Malon's hair in answer and glanced at me with a smile. "I'm surprised to see you here, Sheik. What are you doing hanging around a dump like this?" He yelped as Malon jabbed an elbow into his ribs.

I couldn't help a small smile back, though it would be hidden beneath the mask. I was already feeling better for his presence, as though the horror of the shadow was not quite so acute with him near. "I followed Ganondorf's soldiers here a day ago. How did _you_ get in?"

"Used the hookshot to climb the wall," Link said lazily. "Nifty thing. I think the soldiers have come back, by the way."

"We noticed." Silently I summoned the thread of shadow that had stayed with Link back to me. Undoubtedly it had led him to the barn through the darkened ranch.

"They're after Epona," Malon said angrily. "This piece of trash—" She nudged Ingo with a foot, and Link stared down at him with raised eyebrows, "—decided that he was gonna sell my horse to Ganondorf."

Link scowled. "Not a chance."

"Exactly! If they think for one second—"

_BOOM!_

A crash reverberated throughout the entire ranch, shaking the walls of the barn. Epona whinnied and bucked in panic and the sound repeated again and again. Link lunged for the mare's bridle and dragged her down, rubbing her forehead until she began to calm. "I think we have company for supper," he said grimly.

Malon squeaked as the thunder repeated. "What're they doin' to my ranch?!"

"Battering the gate, I imagine," I said. "How do we get out, Malon? Are there any exits beside the gate?"

Malon shook her head slowly. "Only way out would be to climb the walls, and we can't do that with Epona."

"So we bust out and go straight through the soldiers," Link suggested.

"Or we can wait for them to come to us," I countered practically. "They'll be blind, and easy prey for us. In case you haven't noticed, I cloaked the entire ranch."

"It did seem kind of dark," Link admitted.

"Unless, of course, you prefer ten to one odds with no advantage," I added. "Seven to one, with Malon."

"Malon can't fight, she's a girl," Link said jokingly.

Malon sputtered, outraged. "You wanna take me on, fairy boy?!" she demanded, jabbing a finger into his chest.

"This is not productive," I said patiently.

Another thunderous crash shook the entire ranch. "Here's a problem," Link said. "How are _we_ going to see the soldiers? Aren't we just as blind out there as they are?"

"I'm not," I said. "I can see clearly in darkness. As for the two of you, I can lift the cloak from your eyes alone. It will take concentration, but I think I can do it."

Malon nodded, looking slightly pale. "What do we do?"

"Nothing. Just give me a moment." I let the shadow seep back into the barn, cloaking it in darkness once again. Epona shifted nervously; Malon reached out and grasped hold of Link's arm. Silently I ordered the shadow to do as I told it. This was lesser shadow, not the horror that lay waiting for me in the other world; it obeyed my wishes, drawing away from Link and Malon's eyes so they, at least, would see clearer.

"How is it?"

Link moved a hand in front of his eyes. "I can see better, definitely."

A final slam shook the ranch; Malon jumped. I listened hard, sharpening my hearing as much as I could.

"They're in," I announced softly.

"It's about time." Link pushed Malon back behind him and drew his sword. "Sheik?

I drew my dagger. "I'm ready."

"Sheik and I will be next to the door," Link whispered with authority in his voice. "We'll take them down as they come in. Malon, you get anyone we miss."

Wordlessly I took my position, intrigued by this new side of Link. Malon nudged Ingo with a toe. "What about this?"

"Drag him in a stall, out of the way."

Link's fairy hovered nearby as Malon hauled Ingo off, casting a dim white glow in the otherwise darkly shadowed barn. "Go scout, Navi," Link whispered. The fairy squeaked an affirmation and zoomed out of the barn.

"Where did you learn to strategize?" I whispered, and Link grinned.

"Picked it up somewhere." He eyed the hilt of his sword, rubbing it with his thumb, then remarked, "You don't have to help, you know."

"Are you saying I shouldn't?"

"No, no, of course not. I'm grateful." He hesitated. "I'm just wondering how you got involved, is all."

"Malon's not a sage, if that's what concerns you."

"That's not what I—"

Navi zipped back inside the barn and cut Link off before he could finish. "They're coming toward the barn!"

I could hear a Moblin outside, snorting and scuffling. "When I tell you, kick the door open," I said tersely to Link. He looked at me quizzically, but nodded.

We waited, sweating, hardly daring to breathe as I listened hard. Closer and closer…

"Now!"

Link kicked the latch and the door flew open. The Moblin stumbled inside, caught off-guard; in an instant I was on top of it, slitting its throat before it even hit the floor. Sparks flashed in the darkness and metal clanged against metal as Link stopped the downward sweep of a Gerudo's scimitar; he cut her down as I spun around.

The fight was vicious and neat. Link and I cut down our enemies one by one as they tried to enter the barn, and Malon finished off any we missed with her pitchfork. When it was clear that Link and Malon had the barn under control, I jumped up to the hayloft and climbed out onto the roof. From there I dropped down to finish off the two or three still outside the barn.

When it was over, Link and I checked the bodies to make sure they were all dead. I had a deep interest in making sure that none returned to Ganondorf alive. If I was reported to the Black King as a traitor, I was as good as dead.

Link straightened and removed his cap to drag a sleeve across his sweat-dampened forehead. Strands of gold-blond hair clung to his brow. "That was neat. Let's take the horses and get out of here."

"Not without my dad," Malon said firmly.

I frowned as I nudged a dead Gerudo with a toe, only half-listening to the conversation. Doubt was tugging in the back of my mind. There was something not right here.

"Sheik?" Link said, touching my arm. I started slightly.

"Nineteen."

"Huh?"

"There are only nineteen bodies here." I scanned our fallen enemies once more. "There were twenty in the squad."

"Are you sure?" Link demanded. "You took a head count?"

"I don't miss details," I said tersely, fingers tightening reflexively on my dagger.

Malon blanched. "My dad. What if the other one's—"

She broke off and lunged for the door. I caught her around the middle and shoved her back toward Link.

"Get Malon and Epona out," I told Link. "I'll go after Talon."

Link already had Epona half-saddled; he grabbed Malon and hauled her bodily onto the horse's back. "That's my dad out there! Lemme go!" Malon hollered as I swiftly left the barn.

The entire ranch was as dark as though it were a moonless night, though it should have been high noon. The darkness was nothing to me, of course. Trying the handle on the door to the house, I found that it was locked, as expected. I walked around the house, searching for other points of entries.

There—a window on the back wall was open a crack. I climbed swiftly up the side of the house; pushing the window open just enough to allow me entry, I slipped inside.

An arch of silver swung at me out of nowhere. I ducked within a hair's breadth of losing my head and backed away swiftly from the window as a Gerudo stepped out into the middle of the room.

"Sheikah _scum,"_ she spat, searching blindly left and right for me. Her scimitar she thrust out in front of her. I slid silently along the wall, noting the cramped space; it would be difficult to get behind her. A big-bellied, dark-whiskered man lay motionless on a bed against the opposite wall: Malon's father, I guessed.

"Trash," the Gerudo snarled. "Filthy shadow dweller. I know this is the work of one of your kind." She advanced a step or two, swinging her scimitar blindly. "Be certain, when our lord Ganondorf has complete control over this land, we will kill every last one of your vile race. You of the bloody eyes, so proud and haughty, you will beg us for mercy."

"I am Sheikah," I said softly. "We are cursed. We would welcome death."

"Then come out and bare your throat, and I'll give it to you gladly!"

"Not yet," I whispered, and I threw my dagger. The woman's sharp cry cut off as it embedded itself in her throat with a disgusting gurgle. She collapsed, blood gushing down her neck.

Stepping into the center of the room, I placed a foot on the corpse's shoulder and yanked the dagger from her throat. I cleaned the blade, thrust it back into its sheath at my ankle and went to Talon's side.

He was fast asleep, and did not stir when I shook his shoulder. Enchanted, no doubt. There was nothing I could do for him here; I had to get him out of the ranch.

"You're not going to like this, old man," I murmured, propping him up and draping one of his limp arms around my shoulders. _"I_ don't like this." I looked grimly at my free hand, my other arm wrapped around Talon's waist, and took a long breath. "Nothing to it."

I plunged into the mire of the shadow, counting inside my head to ignore the voices that whispered on the edges of my mind, the rest of me focused on our destination: Hyrule Field. Five seconds or so was all it should take. One step, two steps, three…

_Yes._

Darkness swept around my body, crawling beneath my skin, into my mind, my soul, the deepest reaches—

_NO!_

I bit into my hand as hard as I was able. The pain jolted me from the shadow world; Talon and I stumbled and fell into the grass. The sun was beginning to set and a cool breeze was sweeping across the vast plain of Hyrule Field; I let Talon slide down to the ground and closed my eyes, breathing in fresh air. My hand was throbbing, but the pain meant nothing to me.

"Sheik!"

I opened my eyes and glanced to the left to see Link, Malon, and Epona coming toward me, trailing two other horses and a flock of cuccos. "Dad!" Malon yelled, rushing forward to throw her arms around her motionless father. "Is he—"

"It seems he's merely asleep," I told her as Link and Epona caught up to us.

"Sheik, you're bleeding!" Link snatched up my hand and stared at the bite mark. "Who did this?"

I gently extracted my hand from his. "It's nothing."

"But—"

"We should figure out a way to wake up Malon's father," I interrupted pointedly. Malon straightened with a wry smile.

"Oh, that's easy enough." Marching into the cucco flock, Malon snatched one up and brought it over to her father. Sitting with the cucco in her lap beside his ear, she yanked a feather out of its tail.

"BR-KAW!" the cucco screamed, flapping wildly. Talon bolted upright.

"_What in tarnation—" _He stopped and stared around at his audience, mystified, then looked at Malon, still holding the squawking cucco in her lap. "Malon? What's goin' on?"

"You big lug!" Malon let the cucco go to throw her arms around her father's neck, tears streaming down her cheeks.

It took some explaining to make Talon understand that Ingo had betrayed him and that he could not return to the ranch. "'Thought he had some good in him, deep down," Talon said sadly, shaking his head. "Guess I was wrong to take a chance."

I shook my head. "There are still good people in Hyrule. If you believe that, this realm may not be doomed after all."

Link smiled. "I believe it."

Talon slung an arm around his daughter's shoulders. "Well, we'll be back someday to take our ranch. Where to now, sweetheart?"

Link and I suggested that Talon and Malon hide themselves in Kakariko Village. "Ask for Impa if you run into any trouble," I said. "She'll take care of you."

Malon, tears streaming down her cheeks, officially turned Epona over to Link's care, saying goodbye to him and the mare. "You take good care of her, y'hear? Or I'll be after your blood like an angry cucco!"

"Of course I'll take care of her," Link said, rubbing the horse's head affectionately as she butted against his shoulder. "Epona and I will get on just fine." He embraced Malon and kissed the top of her head. "Look after yourself, Malon."

Malon wiped her eyes. "Of course." She turned to me, hesitated, then hugged me tightly. Surprised, I remained still until she stepped back. "So long, Sheik. I'll never forget your kindness."

"Goodbye, Malon," I said.

Link and I watched as Malon and Talon set off across the vast plain with their horses and cuccos behind them. "Do you think they'll be all right?" Link asked when they were mere specks in the distance.

"There's no guarantee. But we know that Malon, at least, is tough enough to survive."

Link smiled. "That's true."

A throb in my hand reminded me that the bite was yet unattended. I tried not to wince, but Link noticed.

"Here," he said, producing a roll of bandages. He ignored my token protests and wrapped the wound efficiently and expertly. "It's the least I can do after all the help you've given me lately, even if you won't tell me what happened."

I rubbed my hand absently after he let it go. "Thank you."

Link smiled. "So, where are you off to now, Sheik?"

"I don't know," I admitted, glancing out at the vast stretch of Hyrule Field. The sun was warm on my back, the air fresh…and Link was here. It was worlds away from the shadow.

"Then why not stick around with me for a while?" Link offered reasonably. Then he grinned. "You're pretty handy in a fight."

I looked at him. "You don't care? If I'm near you?"

"Why should I?"

"I'm Sheikah," I pointed out.

Link cocked his head to one side, looking at me quizzically. "So?"

I thought I had a better idea now of why I felt so drawn to Link. Something about him seemed to erase the dark and cold that pervaded my everyday existence. Somehow, beside him, the horror of the shadow didn't seem quite so near.

In spite of myself, I smiled.

"I'll stay."

* * *

To be continued.


	11. Chapter 11

_AN:_ Sorry for the late update. It slipped my mind. Will update on Monday as usual.

* * *

Chapter 11

_Sheik!_

My lady's voice in the darkness, in my dreams. I saw things, images—a town above which a halo of fire burned, Link in the arms of a great golden creature, a door underwater, a figure encased in ice. I saw my lady, her face shocked and beautiful, looking into mine. Her wide dark eyes, mirroring her luminous soul, stared at me endlessly, accusingly, full of revulsion and terror. I saw the shadow seeping within her, extinguishing the light in her.

_Sheikah!_

I opened my eyes with a gasp. There were stars above me, millions and millions—then I remembered. I was lying in the grass in Hyrule Field, under the dark canopy of the night sky. Warming me at my right were the glowing embers of a dying fire, and across it Link was wrapped up in his cloak, fast asleep. Epona was a large, still shadow beside him, and his fairy, Navi, was nowhere to be seen, though my guess was that she was sleeping under his cap.

I sat up and looked at him for a moment. It had been two days since we left Lon Lon Ranch, and much of it had been spent traveling aimlessly across the plains while I waited for my intuition to tug me in the right direction—not that I particularly minded. I confess I was in no hurry to find the next temple or sage; every step that brought Link closer to Ganondorf brought _me_ closer to death, though of course he didn't know that. I wasn't about to burden him with my troubles.

I couldn't deny, either, that I liked his company. It was…strange, to be near someone who smiled and laughed and didn't see the world as a grim and foreboding place. It was even stranger when he spoke to me like I was a _person_, not Sheikah, and when he laughed at me because I didn't know what to say in return. But I liked it.

I knew I was only deceiving myself. This couldn't go on. I couldn't let him get too attached to me. We couldn't be friends, Link and I. It was completely impractical. If things were different—if _I_ were different…

But I wasn't.

I remembered my dream, the things I had seen in it, as I hugged my knees to my chest. The things I had seen—especially the figure locked in ice, the door underwater—

_Water,_ I realized. _There's a temple of water, somewhere in Hyrule, and a sage._ The moment I thought it, I knew I could find them both. I didn't know where to look just yet, but I knew that if I searched, my intuition would guide me in the right direction.

I got to my feet and looked down at Link. I could wait. I could tell him what I'd dreamed in the morning, that I had to leave. I didn't have to sneak away in the dead of night.

And yet I knew—he would want to search with me. He wouldn't want me to leave on my own. I couldn't tell him why I had to, why I was afraid to spend a moment longer in his company, for his sake, for mine.

And if he asked me to stay, I would. I knew that.

"Be careful, Link," I whispered. "We'll meet again soon."

I walked silently away, leaving him asleep behind me.

* * *

It seemed a perfectly reasonable course of action to follow the river that flowed northwest through Hyrule Field. I followed against its current, to a corner of Hyrule Field where I'd only once been before. Here the river rushed through a series of bends and turns and treacherous rapids, flowing from a waterfall at the edge of the field. Immediately I noticed that something was strange in this place—the air was bitterly cold and snowflakes drifted down from the cloudy sky; the river was frozen in places and reduced to a mere trickle in others. Even in wintertime Hyrule didn't get cold enough to do this; something was clearly very wrong.

When I reached the waterfall, I halted and stared up at it. It was nonexistent, frozen at the top into a few jagged icicles that dripped slowly into the depleted pool below. With the waterfall gone, I could see clearly the cave opening that had been hidden behind it.

I hesitated, staring into the darkness beyond it. What was in there? I hadn't the slightest.

This had to be what I was searching for. Climbing up to an outcropping of rock in front of the frozen waterfall, I leapt across the gap and landed on the floor of the cave.

The air inside the caves was terribly, bitterly cold. I shivered as I walked deeper inside, the temperature dropping with each step forward. Rounding a bend in the path, I halted and stared at the sight before me.

Where once this cave must have been a paradise of water, it was now a frozen wasteland. The deep pool beneath what was clearly once an underground waterfall was completely frozen, the waterfall was dried, and there was no sign of life anywhere but on top of a rock in the middle of a frozen pool, where the figure from my dream stood, locked in ice.

I did not realize immediately that her blue skin was not due to her frozen state, that she was completely hairless, that there were fins—_fins—_blending seamlessly into her arms and legs. Then I understood that this must be a Zora, one of the legendary water-dwellers of Hyrule—not so legendary after all, I amended. By all appearances this one was dead, a corpse frozen in ice, but I knew the stench of Ganondorf's magic. It was as clear as the frozen pool that he had been here, and that somehow he had caused the cavern to freeze over. If an enchantment had done this, there was a good possibility that the Zora was still alive.

I was quite certain that this female was someone important, someone I was here to free—I could feel it in my bones. But how to help her? If the ice was indeed enchanted, as I suspected it was, fire would have no effect on it.

_The shadow,_ I thought with a shudder of foreboding. Like with Talon in the ranch, perhaps I could step through with this Zora—but quite apart from the prospect of being inadvertently frozen in ice with her, the very thought of immersing myself in shadow again made my skin crawl. How many times must I do it? It would destroy me if it could, the shadow, and my lady…

That would be a last resort, I decided. A _very_ last resort.

I looked around the cavern for some way to free the trapped Zora. It was predictably empty, still and frozen in time. How powerful was Ganondorf, that his black enchantments could do this? I had yet to report to him in the north.

I knew it could not be a clever idea to delay the inevitable meeting any more than I already had, but it would have to wait until I could help the Zora, at least.

My intuition seemed to be guiding me now, and I followed its subtle tugs in my mind up a sloping path that curved through the cavern and into a room lit with torches in which a second Zora sat, frozen upon a throne. This creature was massive, bloated, bigger even than Darunia and far rounder. Draped over it—I could not tell if this one was male or female—was a velvet cloak, and a solid crystal of ice trapped it. Perhaps this Zora was some sort of king.

In a bowl atop a small frozen pool, like an offering laid before the monarch, a small fire flickered. Its flame was not orange like the torches that surrounded it, but a blood red, like the color of my own eyes. I stared at it for a moment, chilled suddenly in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. All my senses were telling me that this was what I needed to melt the enchanted ice—yet why in Din's name would the Black King leave this fire so conveniently here, where anyone could find and use it? This was not his doing.

Carefully I picked up the bowl, holding it away from my face and chest. The heat from the red fire was immense, though the sides of the smooth rounded bowl were cool against my fingers. I looked up at the monarch for a moment, but I knew that this fire was not intended for this creature. The female atop the rock in the middle of the cavern—she was the one I must free.

Laden with my precious burden, I made my way back down the sloping path to the frozen pool, where the female Zora waited atop her rock. I took the bowl carefully across the ice until I could place it down at her feet. Not sure what else to do, I stepped back and waited.

All at once the fire flared up with a roar, surrounding the Zora in a cocoon of red flame. I drew back from the immense heat as the ice began to melt, hissing, a puddle of liquid spreading out from the Zora's feet. Within moments it was completely gone; the fire dissipated when there was nothing left to melt, leaving the Zora swaying on her feet, eyes closed.

All at once she crumpled forward; I caught her and bore her weight safely to the ground. Her chest rose and fell slightly as she breathed and the blue in her skin was deepening, which I could only assume meant she was returning to life. I sat back on my heels, waiting for her to revive.

I knew without needing to be told that this creature was a sage. Which one was also fairly clear. What else would a Zora like her be but the sage of water?

Her eyelids fluttered, then slowly opened. She stared up at the ceiling of the cavern with dazed blue eyes, then turned them to me.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Sheik. I am a guide to the Hero of Time."

"The Hero of Time?" She sat up slowly and looked around, bewildered, holding a hand to her head. "Where…where am I?"

"You're in the Zora cavern. It seems you were enchanted by a nasty spell," I explained. "The Black King froze you in ice, along with the rest of this place. You should be all right now."

The Zora blinked at me, then stared around again. Abruptly her eyes widened.

"Ganondorf? Ganondorf did this?!" She leapt to her feet. "That—that _monster! _How _dare_ he!"

Her vehemence surprised me. I sat back on my heels and watched as she strode around the cavern, ranting.

"I _told_ Father to take some notice of what was going on outside our domain! But he thought Ganondorf would never find us—pah!" She spat the word from her mouth. "If I could find that evil, despicable—"

"I take it you would be willing to lend your aid to destroy him?" I asked mildly.

The Zora whirled around to face me, her rant interrupted. Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, "I've never seen anyone like you before. Why are your eyes such a strange color? Why do you hide your face?"

"I am Sheikah. We are of the shadow. We have much to hide."

"I've never heard of the Sheikah," she said.

I smiled slightly. "We're not a very noteworthy race."

"I see." She gazed down at me for a moment with eyes that were the color of deep water. "My name is Ruto. I'm the princess of the Zora kingdom."

I inclined my head. "Your Highness."

"You said that I could aid in Ganondorf's downfall. What would you have me do?"

I liked this woman. She seemed ready to do anything required of her. "There is a distinct possibility that you are a sage, Your Highness, one of the figures of legend who lend their power to the Hero of Time in times of darkness. With your help Link can defeat the Black King and save Hyrule, including your domain."

Abruptly Ruto's entire demeanor changed—she seemed to draw in on herself, a sultry smile spreading over her face. "Who did you say this Hero of Time is?"

I eyed her warily. "His name is Link."

"Link," she echoed throatily, eyes closing briefly. "I've _missed_ him. Where has he been?"

It occurred to me that perhaps she was in love with him. "Busy," I said shortly. "He's been trying to save the world."

"Mmm." Ruto's smile broadened. "He did always seem the type…has he mentioned anything about me? Did he send you here?"

"No. But he'll come soon." I straightened from my crouch and looked her in the eye. "He can do nothing for you or your domain until the water temple is found and purified. For that he needs your help, and he needs to know where the water temple is."

"That's simple," Ruto said matter-of-factly, placing her hands against her hips. "It's at the bottom of Lake Hylia."

I sighed. "I had thought of that. That presents a problem." Indeed, a temple underwater was even worse than a temple in the core of a volcano. Unless Link could sprout gills, which I somehow doubted, how was he to survive beneath the surface of Lake Hylia?

"It doesn't," said Ruto. "My father has a treasure that is exceedingly valuable to anyone who isn't a Zora. With it, Link will be fine."

I smiled slightly. It seemed a solution to every obstacle in Link's path appeared just when it was needed. If I hadn't believed the goddesses' hands might be in the quest, I was beginning to now. "Where do we find it?"

"Only my father knows. You'll have to ask him."

So the massive Zora in the throne room above was Ruto's father, the king. "I cannot. He is under the same spell that Ganondorf inflicted upon you."

Ruto's eyes glittered with anger at the mention of the Black King. "Then free him as you freed me!"

"I cannot," I repeated, not without sympathy. "I used all of the red fire to free you. I don't know where to find more."

Ruto crossed her arms over her chest and said flatly, "It comes from a cave near the lake beyond the waterfall. We don't know how it came to be there or why, but it has eternally burned, hidden within that place. Because we did not understand it, because we feared it might be used for evil, we set monsters and enchantments to guard it…but…even I can't get past them now. That cave has not been entered for decades and decades."

"Link can get past them," I said with certainty. "He'll find the red fire and free your father. And he'll help you realize your power as a sage. After that, he'll need you to help him."

Ruto smiled, not sultry or wistful, but a soft smile. "I've only ever wanted to help him. Though," she added with a note of regret, "I suppose this means I can't marry him now."

I felt my fingers twitch slightly. "He's too busy to marry."

Ruto laughed infectiously. "Hurry and bring him to the water temple, then. I'd like to see him again before I become a sage."

* * *

To be continued.


	12. Chapter 12

_AN:_ Thank you all for your kind reviews.

* * *

Chapter 12

Ruto and I parted ways, her to the water temple, I to look for Link. I left the same way I had come, winding along the depleted Zora River. It was morning now, light slowly swallowing shadow as the sun climbed higher in the sky. I had not gotten far when the sound of hooves against the earth made me stop and take cover in an outcropping of rock.

A few minutes later, I watched as Link went by on Epona's back, heading for the frozen domain. It occurred to me then that Link was not without his own kind of intuition. I knew that he would find his way his way through the cavern to the Zora king, to the lake and the cave where the red fire burned. He didn't need me to guide him through this part. And there was something I needed to do.

I waited until he was gone, then followed the river north.

_Sheik, you mustn't do this,_ my lady spoke up unexpectedly from somewhere in the depths of my mind. _Give up your association with Ganondorf. It's doing you more harm than good._

_What harm? In this world, it's safer to be with him than against him. He doesn't suspect me._

_But you're afraid he will someday,_ my lady insisted. _You're afraid he'll find you out. And you're afraid he'll bring harm to Link through you._

_I'm not afraid of him._

_You're lying and you know it._

I halted in my path. _Tell me something, my lady. Do you think you would fear him if you knew the shadow was always close by, waiting for you to return to it?_

My lady hesitated. _I don't know the shadow_.

_Would you like to know it?_

_I just want you to be safe._

_I can show it to you._

There was a long silence. Then at last my lady said, _Show me._

I smiled then, joy and grief welling inside me all at once, and dragged her deep inside the dark world, to the place where the shadow waited.

In that place my lady was a physical presence beside me, standing in her own body. She was two years older now than she had been the first time I saw her, but she looked exactly the same to me, her face full of apprehension. "Sheik," she whispered, "what is this place?"

I said nothing. She would learn soon enough.

The lesser shadows whispered to us, enticing in their wordless voices. I saw my lady swallow, shrinking closer to me—then, with a sick dread that welled in the pit of my stomach, I felt the presence of the great shadow.

_Welcome,_ it whispered seductively on the edges of our minds.

It swept over us both, and my lady went horribly, deathly pale. I could feel her fighting it, but her efforts were feeble; she didn't understand it, she was too weak. I let it seep into my mind, into my veins, deeper and deeper, black and cold and consuming, and I didn't fight. What was the point? Why resist it when I would only return to it in the end? Let it end now; let the struggle be over.

My lady slid wordlessly down to her knees, then collapsed at my feet, her strength spent in resistance.

_I knew you would bring her to me,_ the shadow said inside my mind. _Eat her, little one. Take whatever you want of her._

I did not reply, could not reply. I was drowning, my consciousness sinking into black oblivion.

A hand wrapped around my upper arm and dug nails into my skin. The pain and sensation pulled me back, dragging me out of the cold mire, and the hand—warm, hard, corporeal—let me go as a familiar figure stepped forward.

_You,_ the shadow snarled.

Impa moved in front of my lady and I, shielding us with her body. "Let them go, shadow. It's not their time yet."

I felt massive power in her, a power that had always before been held in check—she brimmed with it now. Even the shadow shrank from her. I felt it drawing away from my lady and I, felt myself shaking as it left me, and all at once my legs gave out and I sank into a different kind of oblivion.

* * *

I woke slowly, lying on a hard surface in a cool place that smelled of earth and rotted wood, and all I knew was that the shadow was gone, that I had escaped it again, for a time. The relief that flowed over me then was so glorious that I felt my eyes sting with tears, and I covered them with my hand. You who live in the light, you could never understand what it's like, being in the shadow's presence.

"I wonder if you realize how quickly I would kill you if you weren't in Zelda's body," a familiar voice said, and I opened my eyes.

I had ended up in Impa's house again, lying on the floor. Impa herself stood over me, arms crossed over her chest, her face composed and her red eyes glittering with something—anger or fear, I wasn't sure which.

"I wouldn't die anyway," I said tonelessly. "Not so long as I'm in my lady's service."

"Do you understand what you almost did to her?" Impa's voice was dangerously even. "What could have happened? You took her to the shadow world, Sheik. What were you _thinking?"_

"She ordered it of me," I said, sitting up. "I can't refuse my lady's orders."

Impa made a sound like a snarl in her throat and turned away to pace the room. I couldn't take my eyes off her. "You commanded the shadow," I said to her, feeling dazed. "You told it to leave, and it did. It obeys you."

"It doesn't obey me. I have some power over it, I can drive it back, but the shadow is ruled by no one. You know that."

"Then there's no hope for me," I said softly, a heaviness in my chest. "There's nothing."

Impa turned and fixed me with her direct gaze. "You have to find your own hope."

I had nothing to say to that, so instead I asked, "How long has it been?"

"Three days. I hope you've been taking care of that body when you're not trying to kill the spirit inside it." Impa's mouth twisted. "You were exhausted."

"Three days…but Link—"

"Has purged the water temple," Impa finished for me. "And released Ruto to move on to the Sacred Realm. I've been watching him." She smiled crookedly. "I believe he's currently looking for you."

"For me?" I echoed, not sure what to think. "Will he come here?"

"Probably. He'll be drawn by the shadow, which is in turmoil from the presence of unholy creatures inside its temple. Even the shadow can be a power for good if used correctly, and it's a power that must aid Link in the final battle."

I looked at Impa, seeing her with her calm scarlet eyes and the power that lay simmering behind them, and I knew. "You're the sage of shadow."

"Indeed. And as the sage, it's time for me to go and protect my domain as best as I can, until Link comes to purify it. Then I'll move on."

"No! Impa, you can't go. What will I do if you leave me here like this? Don't you understand what's happening to me? You saw what I almost did to my lady! I can't trust myself!"

"There is only one entity in this entire world that controls you, Sheik," Impa told me firmly. "It's not the shadow and it's not Zelda—it's you. I can't protect you anymore. You need to protect yourself. And you need to protect your lady."

"I don't know how," I whispered.

"Then find a way." Impa sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. "I must go. I won't say I know you'll be all right, but I hope it. Wait for Link, and let him know where I've gone, will you?"

What could I do? I nodded.

"Tell Zelda I'm sorry I can't be her handmaiden anymore. Tell her I'll always look after her."

I nodded again. "Goodbye, Impa."

"Goodbye, Sheik."

She left, and I was alone in her house.

I knew that I would probably never see Impa again. I knew also that she had done what I could never do—escaped the cycle of servitude and death that all Sheikah were cursed with. She was a sage now. She was Sheikah no longer.

Not knowing what else to do, I stayed in Impa's house for the next few days, waiting for Link, perhaps. I stayed inside most of the time and only ventured out once or twice into the village.

The villagers of Kakariko recognized me as Sheikah, but, dwelling in a village that had once belonged to the shadow people, they accepted my presence. They gave me food and let me be, though I occasionally heard them wonder aloud where Impa had gone, and whether I knew anything about it.

Once, only once, I ventured out of the house and went to the graveyard behind the village. The clacking of the windmill could be heard everywhere in Kakariko, but there was a heavy silence here, not a bird singing in the trees nor a rustle of wind in the bushes to be heard. The weathered stones that marked the dead might have seemed ominous to some, but to me they weren't frightening. What could the dead do to me? I envied them: they were sleeping peacefully, where the shadow could not touch them.

As for the Sheikah who had once inhabited this town, there were no markers, no peaceful rest.

I walked the paths between the gravestones to the wall that cut off the far end of the cemetery from what lay beyond it. It was made of old, thick wood and covered with charms to keep the dark power out of Kakariko. The magic bothered me—it didn't hurt, precisely, but it prickled the fine hair along my arms and on the back of my neck. Ignoring the charms, I climbed the wall and vaulted over.

Beyond the wall, the entrance to the shadow temple gaped open, beckoning any soul brave enough or foolish enough to enter. Impa was somewhere inside there now, battling the monsters who desecrated the shadow's home. I did not go any closer to it than I dared, disturbed by the emotion that welled up inside me as I approached it. Not fear or horror or repulsion—longing. The shadow temple felt like home.

"I won't be deceived by you," I said softly to the power inside it. "I know what you are. I won't be defeated."

I thought I felt an answering stir from the shadow—reaching out, calling to me. I shuddered and left the temple, and did not come back.

* * *

To be continued.


	13. Chapter 13

_AN:_ There are three more chapters after this one. I'll be updating weekly from now on instead of biweekly. Look for them early in the week. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 13

One morning I woke in Impa's house to the smell of fire. The thick, acrid taste to the air brought me immediately to wakefulness; blindly I stumbled out of Impa's house and looked up. The roof was on fire, along with that of nearly a dozen other houses; villagers ran back and forth with buckets of water, trying to staunch the flames. I heard a horrid crackling and snapping of wood and looked toward the windmill—it was a halo of fire, its slow, unhalting rotation spreading flame to the structures nearby.

I caught the arm of a villager as he tried to dash by. "What happened?"

"I've no idea!" the man yelled over the crackle of burning wood and the shouts of his fellows. "It just came out of nowhere—a little flame at the miller's house and suddenly the windmill was going up in smoke!"

I stared. The miller's house and the windmill were on opposite sides of the village. "How is that possible?"

"It's that thing!" cried a young man with a bucket of water swinging haphazardly in his hand, halting in his tracks nearby. He pointed wildly up toward the windmill. "I seen it makin' fire wherever it goes!"

I looked up in time to see what appeared to be a column of purple-black smoke rise up out of the inferno and sweep down into an untouched section of houses, disappearing from view. Moments later, tongues of flame began to lick at the houses' roofs.

"Mother Farore!" The two men dashed off toward the houses, spitting curses. I saw the shadowy shape slip out around a corner and skid across the main road and in through the window of the apothecary. Swiftly, stealthily, I followed.

I went in through the same window, calling the lesser shadow to me and throwing it around the building like a cloak. It would form a barrier that would hopefully prevent the thing inside, whatever it was, from leaving. Inside, flames were already creeping up the walls and the air was beginning to fill with smoke. I saw the shadow cringing away from me in a corner of the room and knew immediately it was a fake, a pale imitation of true shadow, some unholy creation of Ganondorf's.

I gripped it in my power and my will, tightening my grasp as the thing tried to fight. It was no shadow; I would not be commanded by it. "Back to where you came from!"

The creature screeched and, with a burst of strength, broke my hold over it and fled through the window, passing through the shadow barrier as though it were water. I cursed and leapt out the window after it, calling the lesser shadow back to me. The creature fled to the middle of the village and dove down into the well.

I halted at the well's rim, peering down into the darkness. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end—this was the entrance to the catacombs, the place of the dead Sheikah who had preceded me. This place, too, was ruled by the shadow. I couldn't enter it. I couldn't.

"Sheik!"

I started at the familiar voice and turned. Link stood below on the grassy main road, holding Epona's bridle.

"Link! When did you come?"

"Just now." His face was smudged with soot and his gauntlets looked slightly charred; he'd been doing something dangerous again. "What's going on here? Why's everything on fire?"

"There's a creature in the well. One of Ganondorf's monsters, masquerading as a shadow."

"How do we get rid of it?" he asked unhesitatingly.

"I don't know." The frustration of being eluded by this despicable imitation must have shown in my face, for Link looked startled. "I've been trying."

The villagers were beginning to get the fire under control. It seemed that with the creature hiding underground, at least for now, things weren't quite as chaotic as before.

Link looked at me in silence for a moment. "Why did you disappear? You didn't even tell me you were going."

I turned back to the well. "There was something I needed to do."

"I couldn't have gone with you? You couldn't at least have told me what it was?" His voice was rising in frustration. "Why do you do things like this? What do you have that you need to hide that badly?"

I sighed. "You don't understand."

"How am I _supposed_ to understand when you don't _tell_ me anything?"

He was _angry._ He was actually angry.

I turned to face him, hands clenching involuntarily. "You think it's so easy, don't you?" Link's eyes widened slightly. The emotion in my voice startled even me. "Do you ever stop to think that maybe there's a _reason_ I hide behind a mask? You think you know what Sheikah are? You think you know what I'm capable of?"

Link took a step toward me. "Of course I don't! I have no idea what you're capable of because you keep me in the dark about _everything!_" I couldn't remember ever seeing him like this, his face dark with anger. "I never asked you to help me! You offered it on your own, but all you do is string me along—a little information here, a little there, and then you up and disappear for goddesses know what! Do you think I don't see how miserable you are? Why won't you let me help you?"

I had to bite my lip to keep from answering. Why wouldn't he leave me alone? What did it _matter_ to him what was happening to me? Didn't he see that it was better this way? Didn't he understand what a danger I was?

Something of my thoughts must have shown on my face, because his expression softened a little. "Look, I don't really care what you're capable of or anything like that. And I can't ever repay you for everything you've done to help me, so I'm not going to try. I just—"

A sudden rumbling in the earth beneath our feet interrupted him. I grabbed the edge of the well to keep on my feet as Link stumbled back, wide-eyed. "What _is_ that?"

"The false shadow." The prickling on the back of my neck warned me. "It's coming!"

I turned back to the well just as the black mass burst out from inside, and before I could defend myself, before I could even think, the false shadow engulfed me. Pain seared through me like fire; I tried to scream but was unable to draw breath. I saw nothing, heard nothing; agony was all I knew for what felt like an eternity—until at last I felt myself collapse to the ground and then, blessedly, nothing.

"Sheik?" A hand was shaking me gently, drawing me back to consciousness. "Sheik?"

I opened my eyes slowly, wincing as sunlight intensified the dull throbbing in my skull. A figure over me shifted, blocking the light, and a familiar face swam before my vision—Link's.

"Are you all right?" he asked, face strained with worry.

I was so dazed I barely comprehended the question. Blindly I reached up and touched his face.

"Link. I have to tell you something."

"Don't talk," he said firmly. "I think you took a bad hit to the head."

"No. I have to…just listen." I hardly knew what I was saying—it was as though my voice was speaking of its own accord, beyond my control. "I'm sorry I left. I had to go. I'm afraid to be near you. It makes me happy, and I can't be happy…because I'll lose it all, in the end."

Link covered my hand with his. "Sheik—"

A sudden crash of wooden timbers made us both jump; a house's roof had caved in, eaten away by fire. Link got to his feet, silent, and grasped my arm to haul me easily to mine. We both stood and watched as the wreckage of the house began to smolder itself to ashes, ringed by a circle of silent spectators.

"You don't eat enough," Link said to me at last.

I tugged out of his grasp, unnerved. "The false shadow?"

"Done away with." Link put a hand on the hilt of his sword, which was stuck in the dirt beside us. "The windmill's finished, but the villagers think they can save most of the houses. There were only a few injuries, luckily." He looked at me sharply. "Are you sure you're all right?"

I wasn't sure at all, but it didn't seem to matter. "It's Impa," I told him, feeling unaccountably tired. "The shadow sage. The temple is here, behind the graveyard."

Link looked startled. "Really?"

"Yes. There are two more sages to find after you've freed the sage of shadow. Spirit and time." I sighed. "After that you can fight Ganondorf."

"Do you know where they are?"

"No. Although the sage of time is undoubtedly connected to the Temple of Time in the north…" I thought for a moment. "And I would look for the sage of spirit in the desert. It's our only unexplored region."

Link nodded. "So, shadow temple first, then the desert…I think I'd like to stay as far from Ganondorf as long as possible," he added with a wry smile. "That's all you know?"

I hesitated, thinking of my lady. "Yes."

Link looked at me squarely. "And I suppose you're not going to tell me what being a Sheikah really means?"

I swallowed, fixing my eyes on a point in the grass beyond Link's feet. "I can't. Please don't ask me to."

"All right." Link turned away to free his sword from the grass and took up his shield, looking toward the cemetery, and I could think only of how distant and familiar he was all at once—the Link I had come to know and the legendary Hero of Time in one. Silhouetted against the burning halo of the windmill, he looked strangely serene, and if I'd had any doubts before, I knew now with complete certainty that he would defeat Ganondorf. It was in him to do it. He was born for it.

He looked back at me. "I'm going to the shadow temple. Will you come?"

I shuddered. "Not that place."

His eyes held mine. "The spirit temple, then?"

I hesitated, but I already knew the answer. I couldn't follow him into the shadow. But I would have followed him anywhere else.

"Yes. I have to do something first. But I'll meet you there, in the desert."

I could see that he wanted to ask what I was going to do, but he merely nodded. "I'll see you there, then."

I watched him walk away with his fairy beside him, Epona ambling behind, until he was completely gone from view, and never could I say what I thought at that moment. "Good luck," I whispered, but I knew he would be safe. The shadow wouldn't touch him. He was needed to restore balance to this land.

I turned and left the village alone, heading out into Hyrule Field, and once more I turned north.

This time there was no protest from my lady as I made my way toward the jutting black tower far in the distance. She hadn't even stirred since the last time we had spoken. That was to be expected, of course, after what I'd nearly done. I could not ask for her forgiveness. And I could not assure her that I would never do it again.

But after the report to Ganondorf, I would go to the desert with Link. I would be safer then, from the shadow and from myself. He was my hope.

It was not far from Kakariko to the castle and I soon slipped into the ruins of Castletown, making my way through charred remains of homes and the monsters who wandered aimlessly among the wreckage. The citadel rose up before me, grim and foreboding, its doors gaping open. With only a slight shudder of hesitation, I passed through them into darkness.

Inside, I was made to wait in the foyer while a guard told the Black King of my arrival. It was not long before a Gerudo returned and, in bitter silence, led me up and up and up an incredible flight of stairs, past so many levels that I knew we must be going to the very top of the tower. Was Ganondorf always up there, I wondered, where he could see all Hyrule and plot its destruction?

Then a door swung open on a solitary tower room, and all thought and reason ceased. The Black King in his armor and mantle stood with his back turned to me, waiting for me to enter. I had come this far; there was no other recourse for me. Shuddering, I stepped into the room, and the door closed like a trap behind me.

"Welcome, Sheikah." His voice was as I remembered it—calm and amused and, even worse, not without kindness. "It's been some time."

I went to my knees, lowering my head until it nearly touched the ground. "Yes," I whispered.

"What have you to tell me about Link?"

"He travels Hyrule in search of the sages. He has freed—" I quickly decided that a few sages could be lost along the way, "—two, thus far. He has no companions, other than a fairy and a horse."

"Does he have the sword?" Ganondorf asked alertly. "The Master Sword?"

"Yes, Black King."

"I see." Ganondorf was silent for several long moments, as though considering this news. "I have heard some interesting things about you, Sheikah," he said at last, and my blood ran cold.

I forced myself to be calm. "Such as?"

"Rumors. Whispers. They say you help the Hero of Time. That you aid the sages in awakening to their powers. That you kill my own subjects in his defense."

Each word was like a death sentence. Rigidly I stared at the floor, sweating. How did he know? How could I convince him it wasn't true?

The Black King turned to face me. "You see, Sheikah, I have other spies," he said as though reading my thoughts. I could hear the smile in his voice. "Some that aren't of this world. Some that can follow even a Sheikah undetected."

I swallowed hard. I had failed. I had failed to protect my lady. Now I was going to die, and her with me.

"They seem to think that you've betrayed me." His boots thudded heavily against the floor as he approached me. "That your true loyalty lies with Link." He knelt down before me, his hand reaching out to caress my cheek. "But I know they're wrong. You're still loyal to me. You've only been helping him to gain his trust. It's a very valuable thing, Link's trust. What are the lives of a few Gerudo and Moblins compared to that?

"I'm going to give you a chance to prove that my faith in you isn't unfounded. You're going to go to Link, and you're going to get his sword from him, and you're going to bring it back to me. That's all. You don't even have to kill him. All I want is the Master Sword." He chuckled quietly. "After it's melted down, not a single weapon in this world will be able to kill me. And Link may live. His courage is to be admired, after all."

I couldn't move, couldn't speak. How had I allowed myself to fall into this trap? How could I have been so foolish?

"I don't think I have to tell you what will happen if you disobey me," Ganondorf added quietly. "Now go, Sheikah."

I got to my feet, shaking, expecting at any moment for the Black King to draw the great sword on his back and cut off my head with one powerful swing. But he didn't move as I turned and left, and no one followed me as I descended the many stairs. It seemed he really did mean to let me go—and to do what? Betray Link? Better that I should die, if only I hadn't my lady to protect!

It was an appalling choice. Destroy any chance of Hyrule being saved—and destroy Link's trust in me—or die, taking my lady with me. How had this happened? How could I have made so many terrible mistakes? Helping Link, serving Ganondorf, forgetting every Sheikah creed I ever knew—they were only a few in a chain of damning errors. But the worst was allowing Link to trust me—no. The worst was trusting him.

And now I was forced to betray him.

"Then let him be betrayed!" I screamed suddenly to an empty, uncaring sky. "This is his fault, all of it! I would never have started to question if I hadn't met him! I could have fulfilled my purpose and died quietly, but now it's _ruined!_ It's all ruined!"

No one answered. No voice called down from the heavens, no hand reached out to help me. There was no hope left for me. There was nothing.

But it didn't matter to me anymore. Why keep struggling? What did I have to fight for?

I would take the sword. I would betray Link. I would make him hate me. Then, finally, everything would be as it should.

To be continued.


	14. Chapter 14

_AN: _Two chapters left after this one. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 14

I had explored the Gerudo desert, two years ago when I first came to Hyrule, but not to any great extent. One could wander that wasteland for weeks and find nothing—but Link, of course, was guided by fate. For once he took the lead and I followed, hoping he knew his way, or something else knew his way for him, well enough that we wouldn't get lost and die in the desert. Always I took note of the sparse landmarks we passed, so that I might find my way back. I came to this place with Link, but I would leave it alone.

Yet in Link's company my resolve began to waver, as I half-expected it might. Minutes, hours, even whole days passed in the desert that I didn't think of my promise, only to be filled with doubt when it returned to me. Was I really going to do this? How could I betray him when he trusted me, cared for me, even thought of me as a friend?

I didn't want to betray him any more than I wanted to die. Yet anything I did would only lead to one end for me, when all I wanted was to stay beside him for the rest of my days.

_Goddesses damn him for making me this way!_ I thought savagely. _I hate him for it!_

But as often as I thought I hated him, just as often I hated myself.

The first few nights were plagued with sandstorms that forced us to hunker down in whatever shelter we could find, often at the foot of ridges or in strange tombs that seemed to appear here and there in the sand, likely burial places of the Gerudo. There were no ghosts in those places, only the wind howling outside, threatening to scour every living creature to bone. I didn't bother trying to take Link's sword those first nights; I could not possibly survive alone in the middle of a sandstorm. Each passing day drew us deeper and deeper into the desert.

At last a night came that was clear. Though the wind still blew, no sand rose to choke the air; the stars were brilliant in a calm dark sky. Link and I found shelter in the ruins of an old structure whose purpose I did not know; it was now only broken slabs of beige stone and one near-whole wall, in the shadow of which we set up camp. Link's mare Epona positioned herself nearby and immediately went to sleep, while Link built a fire out of the wood we'd collected when trees were still part of the landscape.

Blue and orange flames soon twisted around the dry wood. I sat in the sand, hugging my knees to my chest, and watched the fire burn, a flicker of warmth in the cold night.

"I guess I'm pretty close now," Link commented as he tossed another log onto the fire and took a seat across from me. "To Ganondorf, I mean."

"I'm sure the Black King knows it," I said neutrally. "He will try even harder to stop you."

Link made a dismissive sound. "Let him try."

I looked at him in silence for a moment.

"You really think you'll do it, don't you? Defeat the Black King?"

"Of course." Link looked surprised that I'd even asked. "It's what I was born to do, isn't it?" He looked into the fire, the flickering light reflected in his eyes. "I've seen a lot of terrible things since I woke in the Temple of Time. A lot of people suffering. And it's on him, everything that's gone wrong in this land. He needs to pay for that. He _will_ pay for that. If I could just—" He broke off, shaking his head.

"What?"

I didn't think Link would reply, but at last he said, "I'm not sure I can do this without knowing Zelda is safe. If I just knew where she was…it's so _maddening._ What's supposed to happen after Ganondorf is gone? I know the king's dead. Hyrule needs its princess even more than it needs me, and besides, I—" He stopped again.

I looked at the fire. "You miss her," I said softly.

Link gave me a quick smile. "It's not like I knew her that well, before. She was just kind of sweet." He looked as though he were about to say more, then thought better of it. "What are you going to do when it's over, Sheik? When Ganondorf's gone?"

The question unnerved me, as though he had read my mind. "I don't know." Something, some madness or recklessness, prompted me to say, "But we probably won't see each other again."

Link's eyes widened. "What? Why?"

I smiled humorlessly beneath the mask. "We walk different paths."

"But why can't—wait. What are you not saying? Is this one of those Sheikah things you won't tell me about?"

I shook my head, regretting having spoken. "It's nothing."

Link abruptly looked mad. "Sheik—"

"Don't ask me!" I snapped, surprising myself with my vehemence. "Why should what happens to me mean anything to you? You think a creature like me is worth your bother? You don't have any idea what I'm capable of. You have no idea of the danger I could be to you."

Link stared at me mulishly. "If you're telling me not to trust you, better not to try. _That_ ship has sailed!"

"Then you're a worse fool than I thought you were," I snapped.

"Am I? Or is the problem that you just can't accept that maybe someone _wants_ you around?" He gave a short, harsh bark of laughter. "Of course you can't. I've never met someone so goddess-damned determined to be tragic!"

"_Determined?!_ You think I _want_ to—" I clamped my mouth shut.

The look on Link's face frightened me. "To _what?"_

I struggled in the silence that followed. What harm would come from telling him? If I just said it…

And then what? Betray him?

I grabbed a blanket out of the pile of supplies beside Epona's saddle and threw it around myself. "I'm going to sleep." I laid down in the sand and curled up on my side, my back facing him. "Good night."

There was a long, long silence, and at last I heard Link sigh. "Good night, Sheik."

I lay there breathing slowly and steadily, pretending to be asleep as Link moved around the camp. At last he settled in and I listened as his breathing grew slow and even in sleep; even then I did not stir for some time, watching the moon creep higher into the sky, the sands glowing white beneath it. At last, when I was sure that Link was deeply asleep, I sat up, shifting the blanket aside.

He sat with his back against the wall of the ruins, head bowed in sleep, the handle of his sword leaning against his shoulder and the point of the sheathed blade sticking in the sand. He had slept like this every night since we came to the desert; I suppose he had learned somewhere that he could never be without his sword, unprepared to defend himself.

With the absolute silence of the Sheikah, I moved toward him until I was crouched in front of him. For a long moment I did not move, not until I was entirely certain that he was asleep. He did not stir, his bangs shadowing his closed eyes.

Slowly, not daring to breathe, I reached out and closed a hand around the hilt of his sword. Link didn't stir as I began to slide it from his grasp—then abruptly his eyes opened, dark and unfocused with sleep, and met mine.

"Sheik?" he said sleepily. "What're you doing?"

I had my hand on my dagger before I even knew it. As I yanked it from its sheath, Link jerked to the side just in time; a few sliced strands of hair drifted to the ground. My second slash thumped against his scabbard, sticking in the leather. He kicked out; I jumped away, barely dodging. Crouching in the sand, clutching the dagger, I watched as he rose to his feet and unsheathed his sword, tossing the scabbard aside.

"What are you _doing?"_

"The sword."

"What?"

"Give me the sword."

Something flickered in his eyes—anger? Fear? "What do you want with it?"

I smiled, though he couldn't see it beneath the mask. "You still don't understand, do you? You still don't see what's right in front of your eyes."

"What don't I—" He cut off as I leapt for him again, parrying my first strike. I put every Sheikah acrobat to use in trying to defeat him—not kill him, but at least get the sword from him—but he was cursed fast, honed from fighting Ganondorf's monsters. He evaded or blocked every strike and drove me back with the range of the Master Sword.

"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, panting with exertion. "What do you want?"

I laughed hollowly. "I'm working for Ganondorf. I've been working for him since the day you and I met."

Link's eyes widened. "You're lying."

"I've been lying to you every moment I've been with you! Open your eyes! _This_ is what being Sheikah means! _This_ is what I am!"

The flurry of slashes and strikes, parries and dodges that followed were a blur to me; all I remember were the clangs of metal striking against metal and the sparks flying before my eyes. I moved automatically, hating him, hating myself. I no longer cared whether I won the fight.

_Let him kill me, if he will. I am nothing! I am Sheikah!_

One deft twist of Link's sword sent my dagger flying out of my hand; before I'd even realized I'd lost it, Link had caught me by the front of my tunic, whirled me around, and slammed me against the ruined wall. His sword was at my throat.

I shut my eyes, hollowed suddenly of anger and, inexplicably, relieved. If my life must end, let it end this way. Dying by Link's hands was not so terrible.

I waited for the pain of the sharp blade biting into my throat, but it never came. Slowly I opened my eyes and looked up at Link. His face was beaded with sweat and dark with anger, but he didn't move, didn't cut me down.

"Are you going to kill me?" I said softly at last.

His eyes flickered. His face changed suddenly, no longer angry but filled with weariness and repose and something else—something I couldn't name. The sword dropped to the ground, and his hand replaced the blade against the side of my throat. The hand slid up until it traced my jaw beneath the mask. He reached up and pulled it down around my neck.

I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. Slowly, slowly, cupping my face in his hands, Link leaned down and pressed his mouth to mine.

I trembled, my eyes closing of their volition.

He drew away. I stared at him, the blood racing in my veins, sucking in breath.

"Sheik," he whispered, so close, too close.

I let the shadow swallow me and was gone from that place, from the desert, from him.

* * *

To be continued.


	15. Chapter 15

_AN:_ Sorry for the hiatus. I was on spring break last week, and this week was hectic to say the least. One chapter left. Your reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Chapter 15

I threw myself out of the shadow into the Lost Woods, falling on my knees in the grass beside a clear pond. For a moment I was still, sweaty and shaking from passing through the shadow world, however briefly. I could still feel the shadow near, drawn to my anguish, feeding off my despair.

How did I let it come to this? I had failed to take the sword. I had nearly killed my lady yet again. And I had let Link—let him—

_Surely you realized something like this would happen?_

My lady's voice. Her presence now was far stronger than it had ever been, so much so that I could see a ghostly apparition of her behind me, reflected in the water of the pond. Though she was only a young girl yet, her face, grave and sad and serene all at once, looked so very beyond her years.

_You must have known, deep inside, that you couldn't betray him. You care for him. You love him._

I whirled to face her. "What do you know?! I am _Sheikah._ I don't love anyone!"

_Why should the two be mutually exclusive? Why can't a Sheikah love?_

"Because we die! We die when our purposes are fulfilled, we die when our service is finished, and there's nothing in the world that can stop that!"

_Hylians die too,_ she said gravely.

I laughed bitterly. "Compared to most of us, your people live eternities. When you die, do you go to the shadow? No. _That_ is reserved for Sheikah. And every day that horror is near me, trying to draw me back—trying to make me consume you! Do you have any idea what I've done to protect you? How much I've suffered?"

A flicker went through the dark eyes of her apparition.

_Then consume me._

I was so astounded that I went silent for several long moments. Then the hunger rose in me, the longing, the urging of the shadow. "You don't know what you're asking for," I whispered at last.

_I'm certain I don't. But I don't believe you'll destroy me._

"You can't know that."

_I'll risk it, because you're right. You have suffered. And I have stood by and watched you suffer. _Her eyes as she looked at me were gentle. _I want to show you that there are people willing to sacrifice themselves for you too, Sheik. So you don't have to suffer alone._

I was not strong. To protect her I could hold out, perhaps; I could suffer my hunger. But offering herself so freely to me…

Joy and anguish erupted inside me all at once. I went to the place deep inside where I found my lady, and I dragged her into the shadow world, embraced her in my arms and pushed her down beneath me. And I—

I _ate_ her.

Piece by piece, I devoured her, consumed her. The warmth and light of her, her spirit—it filled me, glorious and dizzily wonderful. The joy was indescribable. She was finally mine; finally, I was relieved of the longing, the terrible hunger. I ate and I ate and I ate.

She did not cry out in pain. She did not try to resist me. She gave herself freely, my lady. She suffered for me.

But when the shadow swept over us both, all I felt was cold.

_Yes. That's it. Devour her, little one. Devour all of her._

I shuddered at the shadow's urging, at my lady's eyes, dark and hazed with agony.

_Eat her. Consume her._

What was I doing?

_Eat her, little one._

She was in pain. I was causing her pain.

_Eat her, and give her to me!_

No. No. I couldn't do this. My lady was my ward. I had to protect her. What was I doing? Why wasn't I protecting her?

_Devour!_

Why was she so weak? Why was she shuddering as though in pain? Why did she look at me with such eyes?

_Eat. EAT!_

Eating her. I was eating her. I was hurting her.

_No! NO!_

I shoved her away with all of my strength, with every last ounce of my will. I shoved her out of the shadow world, away from me—torn, ruined, half-consumed, but alive, still alive. A howl of fury like nothing I had ever heard reverberated through that terrible place, and the shadow turned on me.

_NOOOO! GET OUT!_

Like claws digging into my flesh, the shadow ripped through me and burrowed inside.

_No!_ I screamed, on my knees, nails digging into my flesh. _Let me go! Goddesses, please! LET ME GO!_

Grass beneath my knees. The cold of the shadow world. Stars in the sky. I was flickering in and out, between the worlds as I tried to escape, as the shadow held me tighter. With silken claws it seeped into my mind, my soul, taking root and eating me from the inside out, as I had tried to eat—

_You will come. You will return to me, and she with you._

It was winning. The pain, the terror, the iciness filling me like the clutch of a corpse—it was tearing me apart. I had no strength left, no will. It was going to break me. I was breaking.

For an instant I felt the brush of wind, saw the glint of metal. The dagger was in my hand. I felt it even as the shadow dragged me back.

I raised it as the shadow reached the deepest part of me, the only place where light shone. Blackness swept in from the edges of my vision as, with the very last of my will, I blindly swung the weapon down.

The blade pierced through the top of my hand.

The shadow was suddenly gone. I was in my lady's body in the corporeal world, my dagger impaled through my own hand to the hilt, pinning it to the earth. I screamed as the blood welled and poured out into the grass, screamed until my throat was raw and there was no sound left in me.

I yanked the blade out, retching at the pain, and tossed it away, bending over on hands and knees as my stomach rebelled from agony and terror. The effort of vomiting spent the last of my strength. I staggered away on hands and knees, my left hand slipping wetly in its own blood, until at last I collapsed in the grass. The stars glittered coldly above me as my vision blurred and darkened, and with my last conscious effort, I prayed for death.

* * *

I was not dead. I knew it when I woke to find that the agony in my hand was gone, replaced by a sharp, continuous throb that was bearable if harsh. Opening my eyes, it was several moments until I was coherent enough to realize that I was lying on my side between two blankets, my left hand expertly bandaged. Dazed, I stared at it for a minute or two, the snapping and crackling of a fire filling my ears. My entire body was incredibly heavy with weariness and the aftermath of pain; I ached everywhere, so much that the very thought of moving seemed abhorrent to me.

Then it abruptly occurred to me that my hand had not bandaged itself.

In one instant I was fully awake, tense and unmoving beneath the blanket. Link was here. I was certain of it. He had done this. I couldn't see him, but I had no doubt that he was somewhere behind me, building a fire, perhaps. How had he followed me so quickly? How had he found me?

I saw a glint of metal in the grass—my dagger, stained with my own blood. It lay where I had tossed it, just within reach. As slowly as I could, as silently as I could, I reached out my good hand and closed it around the hilt.

At once I flew upright, throwing the blanket aside. Link glanced up and looked at me. He sat before a small fire, feeding it wood; his expression as his eyes met mine was entirely unreadable. For a moment we stared at one another in silence, and then he looked at the fire again, tossing kindling in its midst to flare up and wither away.

I tensed with anger. "Can you afford to be so casual?" I demanded softly. "Do you think that just because I'm injured, I'm not dangerous?"

"Oh, I don't doubt that you're dangerous," Link said, still watching the fire. "I just don't think you'll hurt me."

My hand tightened on the hilt of the dagger—then abruptly the anger drained out of me, and I let my arm lower. He was right. I couldn't hurt him. I couldn't fight him. What was the point? There was nothing in it for either of us.

I sank back down on the blanket, exhausted from just that little movement, and sighed. "What do you want?"

"Where do I begin?" Link said sardonically.

"How did you get here?"

"I used the minuet."

"Ah." I had to smile at my own folly.

Link glared at me, not to be diverted. "Why, Sheik? Why would you hurt yourself like that? What were you trying to prove?"

I sighed. "It's not like that."

"Then _explain it to me._ And goddesses help you if you try to play your little guessing games, Sheik."

He let the threat hang in the air, without elaboration. I wondered what he would do if I refused to tell him.

"It was the shadow," I said at last, surprising myself with the words.

Link looked at me sharply. "The shadow?"

"Yes. I am…we Sheikah, we're shadow people. Born out of the shadow, born to exist as the shadows of the ones we serve, and then to die...to die and return again to our birthplace. To return to shadow." I shuddered. "And it's always there, waiting for us. We never escape it. Except Impa. She escaped.

"It tried to take me back, you see. I was losing myself, my sense of the real world, so I…" Helplessly, I gestured with my injured hand, wincing at the answering throb.

"You hurt yourself."

"Yes. Pain brings me out of it. That time, at Malon's—the bite on my hand. I did it. To escape."

I could see Link taking this in, mulling it over.

"How do you escape it for good?" he asked me.

I smiled bitterly. "I can't."

"But Impa—"

"Impa is a sage. She's not a Sheikah anymore. But I am. When my death comes, I'll return to the shadow. And my death will come soon, very soon. Now that you're so close to defeating Ganondorf, it's only a matter of time until my lady no longer needs me…"

"What do you mean?" Link demanded. "What lady? What does Ganondorf have to do with this?"

"Everything." It all poured out so easily; I hardly knew or cared what I said. "I didn't lie when I told you I've been working for him. Since the day we met…since the day you woke in the Temple of Time. He wanted your sword, and he would have killed me if I didn't get it for him." I drew my knees to my chest and went on tonelessly, "It doesn't matter if I live or die. But my lady, the one I serve, must be protected from him at all costs. She was the one who guided me to you. So I could guide you to Ganondorf. So you would defeat him, and she could return to Hyrule and take back her rightful throne."

"Zelda," Link whispered, looking dazed. "The one you serve—it's Zelda."

"Yes." I looked down at myself, at my hands—one whole, the other pierced through. "This body is hers. I simply disguise it, hide her beneath my own appearance…she is here, inside." I placed my good hand against my heart. "She has been all along."

"With you…" Link bowed his head momentarily, holding it in his hands. "So these past weeks—all along I've been searching for her, and she was beside me the entire time—" He broke off, shaking his head. "I can't believe it."

I said nothing, and after a moment he looked up at me, a light dawning in his eyes. "And you've protected her through everything."

"Protected her?" I echoed bitterly. "I've tried to destroy her. We take sustenance from our masters. They feed us. But the hunger is always there, and it is terrible…I've tried to give her to the shadow. I've tried to eat her. Just now, before you came, I tried to eat her. If I hadn't stopped—"

"But you did stop. You hurt yourself to stop."

"I would have hurt her," I cried bitterly. "Would that I could hurt her for choosing me! I'm an abomination, Link. I'm Sheikah. I'm nothing. I'm worth nothing."

"Yes, you are," Link said quietly. "You never betrayed me. You protected Zelda. And you've been by my side every step of the way, even when I didn't see you…"

To hear him say that, to hear him validate my existence thus, made me happier than I thought I was capable of being. But under it still was the weariness and the pain, the need to protect myself so that when I died it wouldn't be so terribly hard to leave him.

"Why don't you understand?" I whispered, one last half-hearted effort. "Why can't you see me for what I truly am?"

Link looked at me then, and his eyes were brighter than I had ever seen them. "I have _always_ seen you for what you truly are."

* * *

To be continued.


	16. Chapter 16

_AN:_ Wow, I don't know how this thing managed to slip my mind for several weeks, but sorry about the long wait. Here's the final chapter. Thank you for following the story. Your reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Chapter 16

Exhausted and pained still, I soon slept under Link's watch. I slipped into hours of dreamless sleep, too exhausted for nightmares of shadow. It was only when I felt myself beginning to wake that my lady came to me. I knew that she was weak and in pain yet from the ordeal I had put her through, but it seemed to me as though there was a new strength in her eyes, and serenity in her face.

"_This is good,"_ she said, sounding satisfied. _"I'm glad that Link found you. He'll take care of you."_

I could not look at her. "Forgive me," I whispered.

"_I forgive you, Sheik,"_ she said simply, and then I awoke.

Link was nowhere to be seen, but his mare Epona was there, so I guessed he couldn't have gone far. Epona raised her head to look at me for a moment, chewing thoughtfully on a clump of grass, then lowered her head to graze again. I abruptly became aware of my own gnawing hunger, and I hoped that Link had gone to find food.

Briefly I entertained the notion of leaving. It would have been so much easier to seclude myself away somewhere, even in my lady's body, so that I wouldn't have to face what I had done. But I knew now that there was no point in running. It wouldn't change what I'd done or what I felt. And I wasn't sure that Link wouldn't come after me again if I tried.

As if my thoughts had summoned him, the rustling of brush underfoot alerted me to his presence. He came out of the trees with bow and arrows slung over his back and a dead hare in his hand.

He looked at me for a moment. I still couldn't read his expression. "How do you feel?"

"Fine, I suppose."

"I wasn't sure you'd still be here."

"Neither was I."

He said no more, but sat in front of the fire and began to skin and gut the rabbit. The sight of the blood and innards awakened an answering throb in my hand. I winced and hoped Link hadn't noticed.

He had. "Here," he said, reaching into a pouch at his belt and bringing out a handful of leaves. "I got these in the forest. Saria used to grind them up and mix them with water. It's good for pain."

I couldn't perform the work, so once the rabbit was roasting over the fire, Link made a sticky green paste from the leaves and unwrapped the bandages on my hand to apply it. In silence I watched him work, his head bent, brow furrowing slightly as he uncovered the bloody wound.

I looked away so I wouldn't have to see it. "Maybe I did want to hurt myself," I said suddenly, surprising myself with the confession. Link glanced up at me briefly, then looked down again. He didn't reply, merely waited.

"It's easier," I said after a moment or two, to fill the silence. "Being afraid of the shadow…it distracts me from that."

"But it's only temporary. And then you have to deal with it, and this." He turned my hand palm-up in his to apply more of the medicine, which did indeed begin to soothe the pain almost immediately.

I watched him work in silence for a few moments. "I know I've been a fool," I said in a low voice at last. "I should have explained matters to you."

"You were afraid," he said, without judgment.

"Yes, but there's another reason. I know you wanted to save me."

"Want to save you."

"You can't."

He looked up at me. "You're going to tell me there's nothing I can do. But there has to be something. If you can't serve Zelda any longer after Ganondorf's gone—"

"No," I said sharply. "No! I knew that you would say that. I refuse to serve you."

"But why can't—"

"It's her or me," I said ruthlessly. "You can't have us both. If I stay with her, I'll devour her. I'm not strong enough to fight that hunger. It's only a matter of time."

Link drew in a breath and said nothing, but I saw it all clearly in his face.

"You love her."

"I love you both."

I believed him. It should have been enough to keep me here, to bind me to him. I wanted it to be.

But it changed nothing. Once I had looked to Link as my hope against the shadow. Even knowing that our fates were not entwined, knowing there was nothing he could do for me, I had wanted him to save me. I knew now that that was impossible.

But I could save him.

"I won't be the one to destroy you," I told him. "Nor will I destroy my lady. You have to let me go."

His hand tightened on mine, enough to hurt. I welcomed the pain. "I won't."

"You must. Let me die to protect you. Then at least my life will have meaning."

I didn't think he would let go of my hand. But he did at last, and I got to my feet.

"I'll be all right. I'm not going to die just yet. Go and do as you must." I looked at him. "I'll still be watching you. I am still your guide."

* * *

There is little more to tell. Undoubtedly you know the rest of the story already. Link freed the final sage from the Spirit Temple and came back for my lady and I. At long last I withdrew and let her have control of her body once more, so that she and Link might speak face to face.

Consequently, I was asleep when Ganondorf captured and imprisoned my lady, when she was freed by Link, and when she helped him to destroy the Black King once and for all. I was told of it later, the last time I spoke with Link.

"She said she's going to use the ocarina to turn back time seven years," he told me, his face reflective. "She said the proper flow of time must be restored."

"She is right," I said, speaking once again through my lady's voice. "It will heal the land. And it will be right for you, who slept these seven years."

"But you won't be there," he said.

Neither of us spoke for some time. At last I smiled. I was not wearing a mask. It was my lady's face he saw, but it was mine as well.

"Say goodbye, Link."

He took my hand in his and gripped it fiercely. "Goodbye, Sheik."

I held on to the sensation of my hand in his for as long as I could, until at last it faded away. I could feel the shadow very near, waiting for my return. But a bright figure stood in the way.

"Don't go, Sheik," my lady said to me.

"I must go."

She looked at me, her eyes fierce. "I order you not to go. I order you to remain with me."

I met her eyes. She meant it. She would risk her own life for me, knowing the danger I would be to her, knowing perfectly well what I might do to her.

It was in my nature to obey her orders. I warred with myself.

"No," I said at last, surprising myself with the strength of my refusal. Wide-eyed, she gazed wordlessly at me. "No. I will not remain. Our association is ended. Release me from your service, my lady."

There were tears on her face. "I can't."

"You must! Release me, now!"

She shut her eyes, turning away as though she could no longer bear to see me. "Our association is ended," she echoed me, her voice catching. "I release you from my service."

I sighed. It was done. "Farewell, Zelda."

"Farewell, Sheik."

The shadow waited. I went quietly into its embrace.

* * *

I expected to integrate again with the entity that had given me birth, but somehow I retained my consciousness for a time. In that cold horror I half-slept, half-waked, as though awaiting something, as though there was some task I had left undone.

Then she appeared, driving away the shadow with her mere presence, commanding it for that instant. "Impa," I said in recognition.

"Come with me, Sheik."

I followed her through the shadow. I was not afraid, in Impa's presence, but I was puzzled. "Why have you come? I am dead."

"Yes. I've come to be your guide for a little while."

My guide? What need had I of a guide? "I don't understand."

"Sheik," she said slowly, "do you know why our people were cursed to shadow?"

"They betrayed the Royal Family, whom they were bound to protect," I said. "You alone remained loyal. For this transgression, the goddesses made the Sheikah to be part of shadow, forever birthed by it, forever returning to it."

"Yes," Impa said quietly. "Sheik, you are the last of our kind. You died willingly for the princess's sake. Your actions have redeemed our people. Sheikah will no longer be birthed from the shadow. There will be no more."

I stood still, the words ringing through my ears. "I lifted the curse?"

Impa nodded.

"But then…"

"You are dead, Sheik. Nothing can change that. But you are not to be enslaved in shadow. I've come to take you to the Sacred Realm."

I realized then that my awareness of the shadow was gone. My link to it was severed, as suddenly and irrevocably as the loss of a physical limb.

I was free.

* * *

Epilogue

In the Sacred Realm, in the bright place where souls dwell, I wait to perform my final task, content in the knowledge that I will see them again.

I was their guide. So I am, forever.


End file.
